Opposites Attract
by Orla
Summary: SemiAU Season2: A new mutant comes to the Xavier Institute. He has very familiar powers and a frightening reputation. His arrival makes a big impact, especially on Rogue, Pietro and Wanda. At the same time a new danger threatens. COMPLETE!
1. Default Chapter

Opposites Attract An X-Men Evolution Fanfiction by Jaelle and Orla  
  
***  
  
Disclaimer: All belongs to Marvel. etc, etc, etc.  
  
Authors notes: This is an Au ending to season 2 and the timeline begins during the first half of 'Hex Factor' with references to 'Operation Rebirth' - where events have been changed for the purposes of this story (and will be explained - don't worry! ).  
  
***  
  
It was a beautiful day in Bayville, sunny and warm with just the hint of a cool breeze to keep the weather from being too uncomfortable. The weather seemed to have put the teachers in a good mood because there were no surprise tests that day and even the harshest taskmasters set relatively light homework. All in all it was a perfect day and everyone was happy, except for one...  
  
"Something bad is gonna happen, Ah just know it!"  
  
Kitty rolled her eyes. "Oh come ON, Rogue," she shut her locker with a slight bang. "Like, how pessimistic can you be?"  
  
The Southern girl shrugged. "Ah think Ah'm being realistic," she said, her upper lip curled slightly as she regarded Kitty. "But if some people wanna pretend life is wonderful then who am Ah to pop their deluded little bubble?"  
  
Kitty scowled. Sometimes Rogue could really drag a persons mood down! She stuffed her books in her bag and then slung it on her shoulder. "The way you're acting you'd think we're going to be attacked, like, this minute!" she looked around. "By the way... where's Risty? I thought..."  
  
"She had to go visit some family or something, she's been gone for a couple of days," Rogue's expression was sulky and Kitty laughed.  
  
"Oh, so that's why you're so grumpy!"  
  
"Are you stupid or something? No, wait... Ah have the answer to that, you ARE stupid," Rogue glared. "Ah am NOT grumpy! And even if Ah was it wouldn't be because Risty ain't here!" and with that she stalked off, the expression on her face causing the other students to give her an even wider berth that usual.  
  
Kitty muttered a few uncomplimentary things under her breath and trotted off, eager to get home and check out the latest gossip on the new variety TV show she had started watching.  
  
"Hey Kitty!" a hand tapped her on the back as she bounced down the front steps of Bayville High. Turning, Kitty smiled into the face of Evan Daniels. "Hey, Evan!" she said, her cheery mood once more back in place. "Going skateboarding?" she asked, noticing the board under his arm.  
  
"Yeah, one of the guys told me about this trashing place in that park," he grinned. "Thought I'd check it out. Want to come and watch?"  
  
Kitty giggled. "Like, no offence Ev, but I really want to see Stars Stars and it's on in ten minutes!"  
  
"In that case, you want to take the fast trip home?" Kurt Wagner joined them. "Express bamf!"  
  
Kitty's nose wrinkled slightly. "I don't know..." she said. "Last time I did that my clothes smelt like brimstone for AGES!"  
  
"Hey guys, want a lift?" Scott Summers called from the bottom of the steps where he had just pulled up in his sporty red convertible. Kitty cheered. "Yeah! Problem solved!" she charged down the steps, Kurt on her heels.  
  
"See ya later, guys!" Evan waved and, hopping on his skateboard, he zoomed off towards the park.  
  
"One of these days, he'll break his neck," Scott grumbled as he manoeuvred the car down the road.  
  
Jean swatted him on the arm. "Lighten up!"  
  
"Look - there's Rogue!" Kurt pointed.  
  
Kitty groaned. "Aw... can't we just let her walk? She's all doom and gloom today... not that that's different from any other day, but..."  
  
Scott ignored her and pulled up beside Rogue. "Want a ride?" he smiled. "There's plenty of room."  
  
Rogue hesitated briefly, then shrugged and nodded. "Sure."  
  
She squeezed in the back with Kitty and Kurt, smiling at him and glaring at her. Scott accelerated and the car was soon zooming towards the Xavier Institute.  
  
"Stop!" Jean screamed.  
  
Scott braked abruptly. "What? What?"  
  
"Even... the park..." Jean's hands fluttered to her head. "Something's very, very wrong!"  
  
"Aw man..." Kitty groaned. She caught Rogue smirking at her and scowled. "Don't you DARE say 'I told you so'."  
  
"Ah wouldn't dream of it," Rogue said sweetly.  
  
The park was in chaos. People ran, screaming in panic, in all directions, but the thing causing the ruckus was not interested in ordinary humans. Its attention was centred on the boy desperately trying to lure it to a less populated area. Evan Daniels.  
  
And hovering above, watching the proceedings with a twisted smile, was a woman with black hair.  
  
"Who the hell is she?" Evan swore, flicking a barrage of spikes at the mechanical creature pursuing him. "And what the hell is THIS thing? YARGH!" his skateboard hit a rock and Evan tumbled to the ground.  
  
The creature, a seven foot man-shaped robot with red eyes and long limbs, loomed over the boy.  
  
"Excellent, Alpha!" the woman cheered her creation. "Let him be the first!"  
  
Frozen with fear, Evan watched as Alpha opened its mouth wide and revealed a glowing ball of light sitting there. *I am SO dead...*  
  
//Not yet, Evan!//  
  
His eyes widened and he gasped in surprise and relief as a ruby red bolt slammed into Alpha, knocking it back. Before Even could comment he was grabbed from behind and phased into the ground and away from immediate danger.  
  
Scott fired several more blasts at Alpha while Storm added lightening bolts to help drive it back. Wolverine burst from the trees and slashed at it from behind, attempting to hamstring the thing.  
  
But all the woman did was laugh. "Fools! You've done exactly as I expected!"  
  
"Zaladane!" Storm cried, "What do you think this will accomplish?"  
  
"Why nothing less than your ultimate destruction!" Zaladane laughed down at her.  
  
"Oh mah God, and Ah thought Ah'd heard ALL the corny lines," Rogue grumbled.  
  
"Who IS this crazy lady?"  
  
"That ain't no lady," Wolverine growled. "She killed her sister and stole her magnetic powers and went on a rampage five years ago. Storm, the Prof and me managed to take her down. We thought she was safely imprisoned - apparently we were wrong. And she ain't happy about what we did to her!"  
  
"Man, what IS it with people with magnetic powers, they all gotta be crazy psychopaths with delusions of grandeur," Evan moaned.  
  
"Maybe a side affect of their power?" Kurt suggested.  
  
"Ah don't... look out!" Rogue yanked Kurt to one side as a bolt of sizzling white light shot out from Alpha's mouth and straight for the blue-furred boy. It missed him by inches and hit a large tree. Rogue and Kurt watched in astonished horror as the tree exploded.  
  
"Aw shucks," Rogue said.  
  
The battle began in earnest as Zaladane brought out more of her robot minions. The X-Men battled valiantly but it soon became clear that they were outnumbered and outgunned. They fought on, utilising every skill and tactic, and yet...  
  
"Okay, she's just taken Storm out, does anyone ELSE see this as a losing situation?" Kitty demanded. "Yikes!"  
  
"Less talking, more phasing!" Kurt warned her.  
  
Rogue looked up at the woman floating above them. "Kurt, ya think you can get me up there? If Ah can drain her..."  
  
"That is very dangerous..."  
  
"You got any better ideas?"  
  
They both ducked as Wolverine went sailing overhead.  
  
"Not a one. Hang on!"  
  
BAMF  
  
"What do you, aaaahhh!" Zaladane screamed as Rogue's bare hands grasped her upper arms.  
  
"Ugh, come to mama little powers," Rogue muttered, hanging on to Zaladane, knowing that if she let go she would plummet to a rather nasty end.  
  
"It's working!" Kurt cheered from the ground. "It's.. oh no!"  
  
Both Rogue and Zaladane screamed, and electro-magnetic energy tore the robots nearby apart. All around them, metal unravelled and looped.  
  
"Oh no," Jean said. "Something's gone wrong! It's a power overload! *Rogue! Let go!*  
  
Rogue tried to release the screaming woman, but Zaladane grabbed her hands and screamed, "What are you doing to me?"  
  
"Ah'm trying NOT to do it to you!" Rogue screamed. "Let me go ya megalomaniac!"  
  
"Tell me what you're doing!"  
  
"Let GO!!!!" Rogue twisted as memories and powers surged into her. "Make it stop! Make it stop! I don't want it any more!"  
  
The X-Men attempted to get near to force the two women apart, but the electrical energy was so fierce, that even Kitty couldn't approach.  
  
"I can't separate them!" Jean moaned. "They're too..."  
  
Scott put his hand up to his visor. "I... can't get a clear shot!"  
  
"You are ALL USELESS!" A new voice spoke behind them.  
  
"What?"  
  
Below Zaladane and Rogue, one of the broken robots quivered, and then flew up to strike them, knocking them apart and sending them both crashing to earth. Kurt bamfed below Rogue and caught her in his arms as she tumbled down.  
  
"Oof! Rogue, you need to go on a diet!"  
  
The joke was lost as Rogue stared into space, her eyes not registering him.  
  
"Rogue? ROGUE!"  
  
"Is she alright?" Jean came rushing up.  
  
"Nein! She's not responding!"  
  
"It's probably just a power overload, she'll probably be fine in a few minutes. Whatever it was she was trying to do, doesn't seem to have worked. Was it supposed to be some sort of telepathic attack or something?"  
  
"Who ARE you?" Scott demanded, turning to meet the gaze of a young man, his own age, with shoulder length white hair and icy blue eyes. The man looked at him with a superior expression on his face. Something about him awoke a memory in the back of Scott's mind.  
  
Meanwhile, at the base of a tree, Zaladane opened her eyes and tried to focus on the figures in front of her. She could feel consciousness slipping away, but was determined to make one final gesture of defiance against these hated enemies. Using what little power she had left, she reached out to the power cables above her.  
  
"WATCH OUT!" Kitty yelled as the cables suddenly surged towards them.  
  
"Take cover!" Scott leapt aside, grabbing for the white-haired man, but failing to save him as the cables wrapped around his arms and threw him violently against a tree.  
  
Zaladane smiled as oblivion took her. At least some portion of her revenge had been achieved.  
  
"Get them to the medical bay! Quickly!"  
  
**  
  
"Well, the prison has locked Zaladane into the same type of stasis chamber that holds Cain," Xavier said. "So it is most unlikely that she will escape again. Now, as for the other matter." Xavier looked gravely at Storm and Wolverine. "I'm sure that I do not need to tell you who our new visitor is."  
  
"But it doesn't make sense," Storm frowned, rubbing absently at the bandage on her arm. "When Rogue and Scott last saw him he was middle aged, if not older,, how can he now be about sixteen?"  
  
Wolverine frowned. "If he used Operation Rebirth on himself and it went wrong. I wondered after seeing the mess at his Sahara base when I went with Rogue and the elf. We couldn't find anything conclusive, but it looked like a tornado had hit the place," he smirked. "Heh, talk about poetic justice!"  
  
"But he has little memory of his... shall we say... former self," Xavier mused. "Which puts us in a delicate position."  
  
"What do you mean?" Wolverine asked. "I know exactly what to do with him," he unsheathed his claws. "Fricasse Magneto."  
  
"Logan!" Storm glared. "The boy is no longer the Magneto we knew! And remember he did save the students."  
  
"For what purpose?" Logan growled.  
  
"Please calm down, both of you," Xavier held up his hands. "We need to discuss this in depth, along with the students."  
  
"Why do they get a say this?"  
  
"Because if we decide that Magneto should stay here then it will affect them."  
  
Half an hour later a stunned group of teenagers stared at their mentors.  
  
"You're kidding," said Kitty. "MAGNETO? HERE??? Mega-bad killer-mutant? I don't THINK so!"  
  
A babble of voices rose up in response and Professor Xavier listened carefully. The student body appeared to be split more or less evenly, Kitty, Kurt and Evan seemed in favour of taking this opportunity to rid themselves of a menace, whilst Jean and Scott were undecided, but leaning towards incarceration or exile.  
  
"Um, if Ah can say something...?"  
  
"Of course Rogue," Professor Xavier motioned for the others to be quiet as the Southern girl stepped forward from her place in the doorway. "Are you feeling better now?"  
  
"Uhm, yeah. Ah guess," Rogue said. She stood in the middle of the room, twisting her fingers together nervously.  
  
"Um, well, you know, Ah'm not a big fan of Magneto," she looked at Kurt briefly. "But, at the same time, Ah was once a member of Mystique's Brotherhood, and if Ah hadn't found out that she was tricking me, then Ah could've done some very bad things. And Ah absorbed a little bit of him recently and there was something." she paused, struggling to explain the vague images in her head. "Well, Ah just get the feeling that he was. he coulda been an okay guy if. well, anyway, if we condemn Magneto while his memory's gone, then we could be doing something really stupid, because we have the opportunity to... how can Ah put this? Um, to... turn him to the light side of the Force?"  
  
Logan groaned as Kurt and Kitty giggled.  
  
Rogue blushed. "Okay, so Ah'm not a great speechmaker, but y'all get what Ah mean."  
  
"We do Rogue," said Jean. "And I agree."  
  
"Me too," said Kurt. He shrugged. "Okay, so the guy did something to me once, but we have the chance now to change that. And to make sure that it doesn't happen again to anyone else. I would do the same if this happened to Mystique."  
  
Logan, Storm and Xavier paused. Kurt looked at them.  
  
"Wow, are you saying that none of you thought of that? I've been wondering why she wasn't around and what might have happened for ages."  
  
"No, but now I'm going to have nightmares about a teenaged shapeshifter, WITH her memories," Logan growled.  
  
There was a quiet snicker from various people.  
  
"Very well then," Professor Xavier said. "Erik will be allowed to stay."  
  
"Who's Erik?" Everyone asked.  
  
"Well you didn't think Magneto was his REAL name did you, Cyclops, Nightcrawler?" Xavier smiled. "His full name is Erik Magnus Lehnsherr."  
  
"Hey, who's gonna look after him?" Evan asked.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Magneto you dork, who do you think I'm talking about?" Evan yelled at Kurt. "One of us is going to have to show him around and I for one am NOT volunteering!"  
  
"Oh, I think it should be Rogue," said Kitty.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Yes, Rogue is the perfect choice," Jean agreed.  
  
"But, but..."  
  
"I agree Rogue, after your impassioned defence of him, you would seem to be the obvious candidate," Professor Xavier agreed. "Well, that's decided then."  
  
"Huh? What? WAIT!"  
  
"Well, I think you should all get some sleep. Ororo, will you check on Erik please. Good night everyone!"  
  
The X-Men slowly filed out talking amongst themselves, but Rogue lingered behind.  
  
"Yes Rogue?" Professor Xavier inquired.  
  
"Ah'm not sure that..."  
  
"But I am." He said firmly. "Just treat him as you would anyone else."  
  
Rogue surprised him by raising an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you want me to do that?" She asked with a slight smile.  
  
"Ahem, I'm sure you'll do your best."  
  
"Yeah. Um... Professor. There was another thing. Ah... Ah still have Zaladane's powers. Well not all of them of course, but, they're there."  
  
"I know, you'd still have some of her memories too, but I have blocked them off for now. I can only theorise that the extended contact with her has caused you to retain her powers for longer than normal, but I wouldn't worry about it. They'll probably be gone by morning, so I suggest you get some sleep."  
  
"Thanks!" Rogue flashed him a rare smile. "Thanks Professor! Goodnight!"  
  
**  
  
In the infirmary, Ororo watched the newest resident of the institute slowly open his eyes.  
  
"Oooohhh..." Erik moaned. "What hit me?"  
  
"A tree," Ororo told him. "How do you feel?"  
  
"Like I was hit by a tree!" He replied with some heat. "Where am I? Who are you?"  
  
"My name is Ororo Munro, you are at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."  
  
"Xavier... Xavier... that name rings a bell."  
  
"Good evening Erik," Xavier wheeled himself into the infirmary. "I'm pleased to see that you've taken no lasting damage from your fight this evening."  
  
Erik stared at him for a minute. "Do I know you? I feel I should? But... so much is... blurred."  
  
"I understand, I know about your memory loss," said Xavier.  
  
"But I know my name, and I know I have these powers..." Erik said. "But everything else is just... like a dream..."  
  
"Don't push yourself, these things will come to you in time. For now, you just need to know that we are your friends, and are here to help you."  
  
Erik relaxed a little. "I feel like I can trust you. Like you really want to help."  
  
"I do. Believe me, I do." Xavier replied. "You and I have known each other for some time..."  
  
"You're not my father are you?"  
  
"No I'm not. Rather an old colleague."  
  
"Yeah, very old," Erik muttered.  
  
"But I want to help you, and so I am offering you a place at the institute. All of the other people here are like you, mutants. They come here to learn and to hone their abilities in peace and safety. So what do you say Erik, will you stay here?"  
  
"I..." Erik frowned. "I came here because I remembered this place, Bayville. I don't know why, but I felt I could find the answers here. So for now, I will stay."  
  
"Excellent. I have asked one of my students to guide you around and help you with finding your way around school..."  
  
"School?"  
  
"So for now I'll have Ororo take you to your room..."  
  
"School?"  
  
"And then in the morning Rogue will help you."  
  
Xavier left the room and Erik stared after him.  
  
"School?" 


	2. Chapter One: Tuesday

Opposites Attract An X-Men Evolution Fanfiction by Jaelle and Orla  
  
***  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts we still don't own them. damnit!  
  
*** Chapter One: Tuesday Chemistry, Shakespeare and new friendships  
  
***  
  
"Good morning!" Jean beamed at Rogue as the skunk-haired teen wandered into the breakfast room. "Did you sleep well?"  
  
"Uhn," was all Rogue said in reply. There were times when she really hated the popular redhead and this was one of them. Rogue was not a morning person and found people who were very annoying. Seating herself, she grabbed some pancakes and then scanned the breakfast table for the maple syrup. *Darn... right at the bottom of the table...* she glared at the offending metal jug, *Wish I had Jean's powers, could just...*  
  
"AAAAAHHH!"  
  
Jean almost dropped her fork at Rogue's yell. "What? What?"  
  
Rogue blinked, the maple syrup jug held in her trembling hands. "Ummm... nothing... I just thought I saw a... a mouse."  
  
"Eek!" Kitty, who had just entered, leapt onto a chair. "Where?"  
  
"Ah guess Ah was mistaken... sorry."  
  
Kitty got down of her chair and looked around nervously. "Like, I hope so. Ugh... mice..." then she winced, waiting for Rogue to heap scorn on her fear.  
  
For once, Rogue didn't make an insulting remark; instead she just stared at the maple syrup jug with a perplexed expression on her face. *Okay... how...? Oh Ah KNOW how, but... the Prof said... oh man... this is NOT good. But Ah'm not gonna panic... not until tonight, if this power's still around by then Ah'll panic...*  
  
Kitty frowned and then shrugged. So she'd been spared the edge of Rogue's sharp tongue this time, unusual, but not unwelcome. She grabbed some fruit salad and muesli and sat down to eat. The rest of the X-team poured in, chattering in some cases, yawning loudly in others. Morning greetings were exchanged by all, except for Rogue who was still musing on her new (and so far secret) powers while munching her pancakes. However, no one was too surprised by Rogue's silence, as the Goth girl didn't usually join in much of the breakfast chatter.  
  
Then Rogue suddenly glanced at the clock on the wall.  
  
"Oh mah gosh," she turned and sprinted up the stairs.  
  
"Rogue!" Jean called after her.  
  
"What's with HER this morning?" Kitty asked.  
  
Rogue ran along the corridor, past Scott and Evan's rooms. They must have put him in the remaining empty... here!  
  
"Hey!" She banged on the door. "Magneto! Wake up!" *Hang on a sec, his name was... ummm... oh yeah.  
  
"ERIK! Erik wake up! You're going to make us late! ERIIIKKK!!!"  
  
In the room, Erik frowned and finished tying his shoelaces. Who on earth was banging on his door like that?  
  
"ERIK! Get your lazy butt out here!"  
  
Grumbling, he went to the door and opened it, and was confronted by a vividly coloured face.  
  
"AAGGGHHH!!!" He screamed.  
  
Rogue panted and yelled at him. "Do you know what time it is?"  
  
"Who ARE you?" Erik demanded. "Why are you banging on my door? What do you want? And why is your face like that? Oh, I'm sorry," he paused, suddenly concerned. "Is that part of your mutation?"  
  
Rogue steamed. "It is part of mah MAKE-UP, mah name is Rogue, Ah'm supposed to show you the ropes and help yah out, and Ah'm bangin' on your door because you're gonna make us both late for school!"  
  
"School?"  
  
"Yes! School! You know, the place where yah learn things?"  
  
"Wait, I remember you. You were the one in the fight yesterday."  
  
"Yes, yes, now come on!"  
  
Rogue dragged Erik out the door and down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs Ororo handed them both a pack.  
  
"Erik, I've packed some notebooks and pens for you, as well as lunch," she told him as he was hauled past. "Let me have a list of schoolbooks you need when you get back this evening and I'll get them for you tomorrow."  
  
"Thanks," Erik said, taking the pack hastily. "Hold on a moment won't you?" He demanded of Rogue.  
  
"No! Ah'm not gonna be late because of you!"  
  
"You'd better hurry," Storm advised. "Scott and the others are already in the car."  
  
"But I haven't had breakfast yeMMMMPH!" Erik attempted to shake free of Rogue's hold, remove the muffin she'd just shoved in his mouth, and put on his coat and backpack at the same time. He failed.  
  
"Scott! SCOOOOTTTT!!! Don't ya dare ignore me! Give us a lift!" Rogue shouted, towing Erik along. "SCOOOTTT!!! Aw dammit." She watched his car accelerate away, and turned to Erik. "Aren't you ready yet?"  
  
Erik glared at her.  
  
"Fine, we'll just have to take the bus!" Rogue grumbled, ignoring him. "Come on!"  
  
"Argh!" Erik was nearly pulled off his feet. "Let go!" he demanded, stumbling along after her, still trying to sort himself out. "I can walk unaided!"  
  
Rogue scowled and abruptly let go of his wrist, almost causing him to overbalance and fall on his face. "Just keep up!" she snapped.  
  
"Oh no, the BUS!" Rogue sprinted down the street. "Pick up the pace Erik, darn it, I can't afford another tardy!"  
  
Erik sprinted alongside Rogue, but the bus was pulling away. Reaching out with his magnetic powers, he gave it a slight tug, just enough to slow it down so that they could catch it. Beside him, Rogue did the same thing, albeit slightly more clumsily. Still, either of them would have been successful. Unfortunately, BOTH of them...  
  
With a loud *CLUNK* the back half of the bus jerked backwards and somehow snapped clear of the front half. Screaming students scrambled frantically to avoid being spilled into the street as the bus driver stomped on what brakes remained. In two pieces, the bus came finally to a halt.  
  
Erik and Rogue stared at the broken bus in stunned silence for a full minute before Erik cleared his throat and turned to Rogue.  
  
"So," he said casually, "You have magnetic powers too?"  
  
**  
  
"I see," Erik said as he followed Rogue and the rest of the students who had been on the bus through the school gates. "So you steal other mutants powers and use them as your own?"  
  
"Ah don't _steal_," Rogue said defensively. "Ah _borrow_."  
  
Erik arched an eyebrow. "What's the difference?"  
  
"There's a BIG difference," Rogue said. "Ah can't STAND people who steal."  
  
"Uh huh," Erik let it go. "So that's what you were doing yesterday. I thought it was some sort of psychic attack gone wrong."  
  
Rogue shook her head. "Never borrowed telepathy before. Just strength, some eye blasts, ooh... Ah got teleportation once, that was fun. Earthquakes," she ticked the mutant powers off on her gloved fingers. "Super-speed, phasing, weather too, though Ah couldn't control that one. But maybe that was because Ah already had another one."  
  
"You can do more than one at a time?" Erik was surprised, and a little impressed.  
  
"One, two, three, don't matter. Although after two Ah start to get all confused. Oh, shape shifting! Forgot that one. Ah think that's it." She sighed. "And now magnetism," she decided not to add that she had had magnetic powers once before - no point in bringing up even more awkward questions.  
  
Erik frowned as they walked up the school steps. "You seem nervous about that."  
  
Rogue looked around nervously and then stepped closer to him. "It's never lasted this long before," she said quietly. "Normally, Ah keep the powers only a couple of minutes, sometimes even less, it usually depends on how long Ah hold on. But Ah've never held on for as long as with that Zaladane woman, and Ah didn't really want to, her mind was horrible. Ah'm... nervous is all. It's been hours, and... they're still here."  
  
Erik patted her shoulder. Carefully. "I wouldn't worry about it," he said. "It's probably just because of prolonged exposure. It's not like you have anything to compare this to after all."  
  
"You're right," Rogue said. "The Professor said the same thing." She pushed open the door to her class.  
  
"Hey, maybe you should start keeping track of how long each 'borrowing' lasts," Erik suggested as he followed her inside. "It might be increasing exponential to the amount of time you hold on."  
  
"That's a good idea, I'll..."  
  
"Ahem."  
  
Rogue's eyes widened. She had been so caught up in the conversation that it didn't register that they had just walked in on a full class and the teacher was already behind the desk.  
  
"Uh... uh... Mr Lawrence, Ah'm sorry," she said. "But the bus..."  
  
"Yes, I heard about the bus and I accept that, but this young man seems to be intent on following you to class, and I'm fairly sure we have rules about that," Lawrence said with an undercurrent of humour.  
  
"Oh yeah, this is Erik, he's new," Rogue explained.  
  
Lawrence raised his eyebrow at her. "Then shouldn't you take him to the Office?" he smiled. "I'll make sure you get the notes on what you miss."  
  
"Uh, yeah sure, thanks. This way Erik."  
  
Rogue's agitation was further increased when she noticed the entire class staring was at her and Erik, many of them smirking.  
  
"What?" she demanded. "Sheesh. C'mon Erik."  
  
As they left, Duncan Matheson leaned over to Scott and whispered, "Wow, the new guy works _fast_."  
  
"Yes, he certainly does," Scott gritted out.  
  
Duncan snickered. "What's the matter, Summers? You jealous? Didn't think Goth girl was your type."  
  
"Shut up, Matheson," Scott stared fixedly at his chemistry book. "She's just my friend." *And that guy is Magneto...*  
  
**  
  
"Man, this day is turning into an absolute nightmare," Rogue grumbled as she led Erik into the school office. "What more could go wrong?"  
  
"Heya Roguey!"  
  
Erik watched as Rogue closed her eyes and groaned softly. "Great... jus' great..." she turned and greeted the boy who had hailed her. "Hello Lance, ya already in trouble or somethin'?"  
  
Lance Alvers attempted to look innocent. "Who me?" he looked curiously at Erik. "Who's this?" he asked. "Another goody-good recruit?" the long-haired boy frowned slightly. "He looks kinda familiar..."  
  
Rogue scowled. "None of your business, Alvers!" she gave Erik a shove. "C'mon, let's go."  
  
"Will you stop ordering me about?" Erik shook her hand off. "I am perfectly capable of..."  
  
"Hey-who's-the-new-dude?"  
  
Erik jumped back slightly. "Where the hell did you come from?"  
  
Pietro smiled wickedly. "If-you-got-to-ask-I'm-not-telling!"  
  
Lance's frown deepened as he looked from his team mate to Erik. "Wait a second..."  
  
"Hey! Lady! I need some forms and stuff!" Rogue banged on the office desk. The secretary bustled out, her face set in an expression of disapproval. "No need to shout," she scolded. "I can hear you just fine."  
  
"What is all the racket?" Principal Kelly burst out of his office. "Oh no... Alvers and Maximoff AGAIN?" he sighed. Then he spotted Rogue. "And what have you done now, young lady? Skipped class again?"  
  
"NO!" Rogue yelled. At Kelly's shocked look, she checked herself and lowered her voice. "Ah mean... this is a new student, suh. He needs to be..."  
  
"Oh, this would be Erik Magnus?" Kelly smiled. "Professor Xavier left a message that I was to expect him. Estelle, please give Mr Magnus the necessary forms and there should be a timetable available."  
  
"Yes, Mr Kelly," the secretary was all sweetness.  
  
"As for you two boys..." Kelly opened his office door. "Inside."  
  
Five minutes later, as they were walking back to chemistry, Erik raised the point that had been niggling at him.  
  
"Rogue, are those two boys we met also mutants?"  
  
"Umm... yeah."  
  
"But they don't live at the Institute?"  
  
"Uh... no."  
  
"Is there a reason?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Are you going to tell me?"  
  
"No."  
  
"I thought you were supposed to be helping me!" Erik snapped. "All this evasion is..."  
  
"Ah'm only not explaining NOW because we're just about to reach the classroom again!" Rogue interrupted. "Ah'll tell you later, okay? You think you can control yourself, hmmm?" she pushed open the door.  
  
"Welcome back," Mr Lawrence grinned at them. "Everything sorted out, Erik?"  
  
"Er... yes."  
  
"Good! Now we've just finished off discussing we did yesterday - I'm sure Scott will be able to fill you both in - and are just about to begin a new experiment: Miniature Explosions with Hydrogen Gas Bubbles..."  
  
Erik let out an audible sigh and rolled his eyes. "Huh... child's play," he muttered.  
  
"Oh really?" Lawrence had sharp hearing. "Would you like to explain the elements needed and the procedure then?"  
  
This request, which would have most normal students groaning, didn't faze Erik in the slightest. "Certainly," he said, getting up and walking to the head of the class. "First you require a syringe full of oxygen..."  
  
Rogue listened, open-mouthed, as Erik casually reeled off ingredients, as he started on the procedure (and mentioned the safety precautions), she glanced over at Scott who was also looking stunned. Her team leader looked back at her and mouthed, "How the hell does he know this if he's lost his memory?" but all Rogue could do was shrug. Finally Erik finished, a smug, rather superior smirk on his face that Rogue longed to wipe off.  
  
Lawrence blinked a couple of times and then recovered his wits. "Well... ah... thank you, Erik. Alright class, get into pairs and I want you to perform the experiment, answering the pre-lab questions that I've written on the board..."  
  
Erik looked at Rogue and started to move towards her, just as Scott, a stony expression on his face, got to his feet. Rogue viewed the approaching boys with a feeling nearing panic. Whoever she chose as a lab partner, one was going to be miffed. She frowned. How DARE they put her in this position!  
  
"Sorry I'm late, teach!"  
  
Rogue's salvation stood in the door; a grin curling her lips and a note held in her hands that she tossed to Lawrence. "My train from New York got held up this morning," Risty Wilde explained. "So I asked the conductor to write this note - it's okay, right?"  
  
Lawrence scanned the note quickly and nodded. "That's fine, Risty, and you're just in time for the experiment, so grab a lab partner quickly."  
  
"Sure!" Risty swivelled round and zoomed over to Rogue's side. "Got one!"  
  
Rogue sighed in relief. Scott and Erik scowled.  
  
"Hmm..." Lawrence surveyed his class. "Well, it looks like we have one extra person... Erik, Scott and Duncan you three work together, okay?" there was a gleam of amusement in his eyes as the three boys looked at each other. Grimly, Scott and Erik sat down facing each other with Duncan, looking a little puzzled, sitting beside Scott.  
  
"Alright, safety goggles on, everyone," Lawrence waved his in the air.  
  
"Ah'm so glad ya made it, Risty!" Rogue said, putting on her goggles. "Ah... Risty?" she nudged her friend. "What's up?"  
  
Risty was frozen, her eyes glued on Erik. She blinked when Rogue nudged her. "Uh... wha? Oh!" she laughed. "I was just wondering who the new kid was..."  
  
"Oh, that's just Erik," Rogue said dismissively.  
  
"'Just' Erik?" Risty raised her eyebrows at her friend. "You seem awfully familiar to be bored with him already!"  
  
Rogue made a face as she put on her goggles and reviewed the experiment. "He's a new boy at the Institute as well."  
  
"Ooooohhh..." Risty said. "So you've already called dibs then? Since you're gonna be living with him, that is."  
  
"Oh _please_, why would ANYONE want someone as arrogant as he is?" Rogue sniffed. "Thinks he's such hot stuff just because he knows lots about chemistry and has magneti... uh, uh... a magnetic personality."  
  
"He looks pretty hot stuff to me," Risty said archly. "Well if you don't want him, will you introduce me after class?"  
  
"Sure. Whatever. What are we supposed to add next?"  
  
Over at the boys' table, things weren't going so amicably.  
  
"Erik, why don't YOU add the next ingredient?" Scott said.  
  
"No Scott, I've ALREADY explained the experiment, so why don't YOU do it," Erik replied.  
  
"Oh but you're obviously so GOOD at this!" Scott glared at Erik.  
  
"Yes, and the only way YOU'LL learn is by doing!" Erik shot back.  
  
"What's THAT supposed to mean?"  
  
"Well if you don't know that EITHER maybe I should explain it in more detail!"  
  
"What a great idea! You can explain it to me AFTER SCHOOL!"  
  
"Oh why wait? It won't take me long to explain it to you at LUNCHTIME!"  
  
Duncan stared at both guys, who were now standing up, fists clenched and faces barely apart.  
  
"I don't know what's wrong with you two," he said in puzzlement. "If it's such a big deal, I'LL add the next item."  
  
So saying, he picked up the tongs and dropped the nearest crystal into the vial.  
  
Scott and Erik swung around and stared in horror.  
  
"NOT THAT ONE!!!"  
  
KABOOM!!!  
  
There was a long silence.  
  
"Right. So Erik, Duncan and Scott on clean-up duty then."  
  
***  
  
"What was all that about?" Risty asked as she and Rogue exited the classroom. She winked. "Sound like they were fighting about you, girlfriend!"  
  
"No way!" snapped Rogue, glaring at her friend. "They were just being. guys. Ah had nothing to do with it."  
  
"Uh-huh, Suuuure." Risty grinned wickedly. "That's not what I see!"  
  
"Oh for. Can't ya just drop it, Risty? Ah'm having a bad enough day as it is without you making insinuations!"  
  
"Sorry!" Risty couldn't quite conceal a smirk. "Hey, I better get to class. see you at lunch?"  
  
"Well, Ah."  
  
"Oh, yes. you'll be showing Erik around," Risty said. "Well, I won't interrupt! See you later."  
  
"That's not what Ah. argh!" Rogue gave up and stomped off towards her next class.  
  
"Rogue, wait up!" Erik called. She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, but slowed down enough for him to catch up with her.  
  
"You cleaned up awful quick," she observed. "What did ya do, stick Scott and Duncan with the work?"  
  
He looked faintly offended. "Of course I didn't! I tided the assigned area completely. with a little help."  
  
Her eyes widened. "You used your powers?" she hissed. "With Duncan in the room? You can't do that!"  
  
"Why not?" he asked. "Why shouldn't I use such God-given powers to make my job easier?"  
  
"Because." Rogue faltered a little. "Well, because normal people might see you and freak out!" she said defiantly. "And then we'd all be in trouble."  
  
He sneered faintly. "We shouldn't have to hide ourselves from ordinary humans."  
  
Rogue eyed him in alarm. This was Magneto talking and that was not a good sign. She bit her lip and wondered what on earth she could say to get away from the topic.  
  
"Uh. so how do you know so much about science?" she asked lamely.  
  
He shrugged. "I have no idea," he looked closely at her. "Perhaps you can tell me."  
  
"Ah have no idea," she said truthfully. After all, it was Professor Xavier who knew all about Magneto, Rogue only knew he dabbled in science and had no clue how far his knowledge extended.  
  
His eyes narrowed, but he decided not to press the issue further and pulled out his timetable. "Speech next? What's that like?"  
  
"Not too bad," said Scott. He had finally caught up with them and was looking rather peeved. "The teacher is extremely fond of Shakespeare though."  
  
"And that's an understatement." muttered Rogue.  
  
"Oh. You're in this class as well?" Erik's tone could have frozen fire. "Wonderful."  
  
Luckily they entered the classroom at that point and Scott had to quell his reaction to Erik's statement. With an inward groan, Rogue noticed that the rumour mill - faster than Quicksilver in cases like this - had already been at work. Several people grinned knowingly in their direction while Taryn - Jean's friend and a pretty brunette with a hankering for Scott - glared furiously at Rogue. Erik remained fairly oblivious, acting as if it was beneath him to notice the insinuations, he simply introduced himself to the teacher and then seated himself at an empty desk - which just happened to be on Rogue's right-side. With Scott in front of her and Erik beside her, the Goth girl felt trapped again and scowled. If there's a God up there then we better not be doing Romeo and Juliet!  
  
"All right class," the teacher - Mr Holgate - clapped his hands. "Now we've been through the tragedies we are now going to start on the Shakespeare comedies. I'm going to divide you into groups of six and give you all a scene from a different play. Read through the scene in your groups in the parts I've assigned for you and then discuss."  
  
He droned on and Erik's eyelids started feeling heavy. Somehow he suspected that Shakespeare was not a great passion of his. He only snapped back to attention when some sheets of paper were dropped on the desk in front of him. He glanced down at the title: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Act III, Scene II. His name had been hastily scribbled down with the name 'Demetrius' scrawled alongside it. The other names - neatly typed - included Scott who was listed as 'Lysander' and Rogue who was listed as 'Helena'.  
  
"Well, this ain't so bad," said Rogue, scanning the first lines of dialogue. "Seems like Scott, Taryn and Paul have the most to do."  
  
"What kind of name is Hermia?" Taryn grumbled to Scott. "Sounds like a disease!"  
  
"I think it's supposed to be Greek," said another classmate, a girl called Lucy who was listed as 'Puck'.  
  
"Oh. whatever!" Taryn sighed. "Let's get started then."  
  
Paul cleared his throat. "I wonder if Titania be awaked; Then, what it was that next came in her eye, Which she must dote on in extremity."  
  
Erik soon got the gist of the story and although mixed-up romance and magic was not really his thing he was able to do justice to his dialogue with Taryn. After that he listened with one ear as Paul and Lucy acted and skimmed ahead.  
  
"Oh no."  
  
"What's the matter?" Rogue whispered.  
  
"Uh."  
  
"How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?" Scott looked significantly at Rogue.  
  
"Oh!" Rogue scrambled for her script and picked it up. "Sorry. ummm. You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray! These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh: Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, Will even weigh, and both as light as tales."  
  
"I had no judgment when to her I swore."  
  
"Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er."  
  
"Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you." Scott read earnestly.  
  
Rogue's eyes skipped to the next set of lines and her eyes widened. Erik winced at the expression on her face, but plunged on regardless with his lines. "O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show; Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!"  
  
Muffled giggles sprang up from around the classroom and Rogue's face reddened. Scott looked like he was about to exploded and Paul was stuffing his fist in his mouth to prevent himself from laughing aloud. She hung her head, staring at the floor in utter mortification, trying to ignore the words coming out of Erik's mouth.  
  
"That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow, Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow; When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!"  
  
"O spite! O hell!" Rogue mumbled. "I see you all are bent; To set against me for your merriment."  
  
"Enunciate, Rogue," Mr Holgate chided her. "Your words should be crystal clear."  
  
She tossed her hair back and glared at him, almost shouting her lines. "If you were civil and knew courtesy, You would not do me thus much injury." and somehow she managed to get through the entire speech.  
  
Through gritted teeth, Scott spoke Lysander's lines. "You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so; For you love Hermia; this you know I know: And here, with all good will, with all my heart, In Hermia's love I yield you up my part; And yours of Helena to me bequeath, Whom I do love and will do till my death."  
  
Feeling Taryn's furious glare on her back, Rogue said: "Never did mockers waste more idle breath."  
  
Scowling at Scott, Erik spoke: "Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none: If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone. My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, And now to Helen is it home return'd, There to remain."  
  
And it just got worse. The rest of the students gave up on their scenes completely and watched avidly, taking note of every look, gesture and inflection in the players' voices. Giggles and murmurs ran around, speculation running rife, and by the time the last line had been spoken Rogue was ready to run out of the room and die. Her only consolation was that Erik and Scott looked almost as embarrassed as she felt. almost.  
  
Mr Holgate restored order and the class continued, without much input from Rogue, Erik or Scott. After what seemed like forever, the bell for next class rang and Rogue attempted to bolt away. Unfortunately.  
  
"Oh look! A nymph divine!"  
  
"Shall I compare thee to an eyne!"  
  
"Can I kiss your tempting cherry lips?"  
  
"SHUT UP!" Rogue screamed. "Ya bunch of losers! Shakespeare woulda BURNED his plays rather than let YOU hacks try and say em!" And with that, she shoved past the last few students standing between her and the door and disappeared down the corridor.  
  
Erik was soon left behind in the empty classroom. "So. I take it I have to figure my own way to the next class?"  
  
**  
  
Wanda idly kicked the wall and glared at some pebbles, which promptly transformed into butterflies and flew away. She heard the bell and growled to herself. "No way, don't care what that woman says I'm not going to classes! Besides, history sucks."  
  
It had been two weeks since the mysterious woman Mystique had broken her out of the Institute her hated father had placed her in, and in that time she'd managed to learn enough control over her powers so that she could attend school. That didn't mean she was going to however. Even if Mystique went, in her "Risty" disguise, for whatever mysterious reason.  
  
"Stupid jerks," she muttered to herself, and then was surprised to hear her comments echoed.  
  
"Stupid jerks! How dare they insult me like that! I'd like to pound their faces into the ground for that. Hate them all. Hate Scott. Hate Erik. ESPECIALLY hate Erik! Hate perfect Jean Grey and little Miss Kitty. Hate Evan! Hate Ku... well, annoyed with Kurt. Hate hate hate stupid school. Stupid dumb moronic idiotic horrible horrible HORRIBLE SCHOOL!"  
  
The rant trailed off as Wanda watched the person complaining turn the corner and stop when she saw her. The girl was dressed in black and green and seemed to be surprised to encounter someone else out here, in the alleys behind the school.  
  
Wanda looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "I couldn't agree more," she said.  
  
Rogue blushed faintly. "Ahem, it's been a bad morning."  
  
"Oh, I know how THAT goes." Wanda agreed. "Wanda."  
  
"Rogue."  
  
"Cool name. Strange, but cool."  
  
"Yours too," Rogue felt the need to say more. "I like your boots."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
The conversation lapsed.  
  
"So," Wanda said. "What do you do for fun around here?"  
  
"Try to think of ways to leave." Rogue replied.  
  
Wanda laughed. "Sounds about right. What class are you cutting?"  
  
"History. It sucks."  
  
"I totally agree!" Wanda said. "Who cares who died when?"  
  
"Yeah, so long as they DIED!"  
  
"So, why were you so upset?" Wanda asked after another silence.  
  
Rogue groaned. "It was TOO embarrassing. We're doing Shakespeare in Speech class, and we had to act out a scene. A love scene."  
  
"Ew," Wanda winced.  
  
"Yeah. And to make things WORSE I had to do the scene with these two guys and they were both such IDIOTS."  
  
"Aren't all men?" Wanda snarked. "So what's wrong with them? Did they hit on you or something?"  
  
"No way," Rogue snorted. "Scott's only got eyes for perfect Jean Grey," her tone turned a little wistful. "He'd NEVER be interested in me. And Erik? *sigh* Don't get me started."  
  
"Aw, go on," Wanda urged, interested in spite of herself.  
  
"Let me see, how best to describe him? Hmmm..." Rogue grinned. "A is for arrogant, which he totally is. B is for best, which is what he THINKS he is..."  
  
**  
  
Erik sadly perused his schedule as he stood by his locker. "Okay, so I need to get to history, which is in 2B. Where is 2B? 2B or not 2B? I think Shakespeare's given me enough trouble for one day." He closed his locker door and jumped back when confronted by Pietro Maximoff's face. "What the hell? Where'd you come from?"  
  
Pietro smirked briefly and then resumed staring at Erik's face. Erik looked at him in confusion. "What? Do I have pen ink or something on me?"  
  
"I don't know what everyone's talking about," Pietro said suddenly. "We look NOTHING alike."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"It's going around that there's a new guy who looks like me," Pietro said. "But we don't look alike at all. Thank goodness, I was getting really worried, especially after Wan... anyway. Clearly a mistake has been made."  
  
The two remarkably similar boys stared at each other.  
  
"Ridiculous!" They both agreed.  
  
"Hey Pietro! Is that your brother?"  
  
"NO!" Pietro turned to leave.  
  
"Hey wait!" Erik grabbed him. "Where's room 2B?"  
  
"Downthatway, firstleft, turnafterthethirdcorridorandupthestairs, it'sonyourright." Pietro ran off.  
  
Erik stared after him. "Thanks," he deadpanned. "That was so helpful."  
  
He looked around for someone else to ask, when Risty came marching up to him.  
  
"Risty! Just the person I. Urk!"  
  
Risty shoved him up against the wall, her hands around his throat. "I know who you are, I know what you're trying to do, and I just want you to know that it's not going to happen. Because I will stop you. And if you get in my way, I will kill you!" Her eyes briefly glowed yellow, before she let him go and stalked away.  
  
"Huh? The women in this school are strange." Erik said in confusion, as he rubbed his throat.  
  
**  
  
Erik manoeuvred his way carefully through the tables in the school cafeteria, his eyes peeled for a spare seat. He spied a familiar white streak of hair and aimed for it.  
  
"There you are!" He said. "Where were you? Do you know how long it took me to find my history classroom! And..." he trailed off as two pairs of hostile female glares locked on him.  
  
"Who's this?" Wanda asked, her voice like ice.  
  
"This is Erik," said Rogue.  
  
"Oooooohhh, THIS is Erik." Wanda smirked. "You're right! He hasn't said a word yet but I'd still recognise him from your description. He DOES look like an arrogant b-OW! Why'd you kick me?"  
  
The lights in the cafeteria flickered.  
  
"Shh!" Rogue said. She looked at Erik, who was looking rather affronted. "Oh sit down Erik, there's space. This is Wanda. She's new too."  
  
Erik said frostily as he sat. "Hello Wanda. What happened? Did the person who was supposed to show you around ditch you as well?" He glared at Rogue.  
  
"No, she just isn't here yet." Wanda snapped. "There she is now." She stood up, "HEY, RISTY!"  
  
There was a loud crash as Risty dropped her food tray, staring at Wanda and her tablemates in horror, and then sprinted from the cafeteria.  
  
"Ah, I see your charming personality has worked its magic on her as well," Erik smirked.  
  
Rogue frowned. "That's not like Risty. Maybe she just didn't want to sit with Erik."  
  
"EXCUSE me!"  
  
"No." Rogue tugged at Wanda's arm. "Sit down Wanda, don't worry about it. Remember what I said about him.'  
  
"Look, I'm telling you, he looks NOTHING like me."  
  
As Wanda sat down, they all turned to see Pietro dragging Todd over to the table. Pietro pointed triumphantly at Erik. "SEE? We... WANDA?"  
  
"Pietro?"  
  
The lights flickered again.  
  
"Must be a fault in the electrical system," said Erik. "What do you want, Maximoff?"  
  
"I... how'd you find out my name?"  
  
"People keep calling me that and then asking if we're related," Erik said in an annoyed tone of voice. Then he paused and sniffed the air. "What is that smell?"  
  
"That's Todd." Rogue said. "He only bathes once a month."  
  
"Ugh. Get AWAY from me!" Erik made shooing motions. "I'm trying to eat here."  
  
"Yeah, shove off, TOAD," Rogue said.  
  
"YEAH, Toad." said Wanda. "Go bug someone else."  
  
"Look, I didn't ASK to come over here." Toad replied. "And Maximoff, next time you want to do an identification parade, go ask someone else." He pushed past Pietro and slunk off.  
  
Pietro lingered. "So, Wanda, want to join me for lunch?"  
  
Wanda merely stared at him stonily. Pietro deflated slightly. "Then, can I sit here instead?"  
  
Rogue raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Pietro Maximoff being humble?"  
  
"You can sit with us," Erik scooted over to one side. "We need more guys at this table."  
  
Pietro sat next to Erik. "Um, thanks. I guess sitting opposite the Goth twins would get anyone down."  
  
"If it bothers you so much you could just LEAVE you know!" Wanda and Rogue said in unison.  
  
"Okay, that was just scary," said Erik.  
  
"Yeah." Pietro agreed.  
  
The two girls contented themselves with a glare at the boys before turning their attention to the food on their trays and lunch proceeded in silence.  
  
"Taryn! Did you hear about this new mall!"  
  
Or at least as much silence as a school cafeteria would allow.  
  
"Detention! Can you believe it? Just because I forgot about the stupid assignment for the third time."  
  
"Hey, did you hear about Cyndi?"  
  
"No, what?"  
  
"Oh, some people are saying she's run away. But I heard that she's been kidnapped."  
  
"Ohmygod! Really?"  
  
"Heyhey, didn't Johnny disappear a little while ago?"  
  
"Yeah, but they said he ran away."  
  
"Johnny wasn't the kind of guy to run away. He was, you know, nice."  
  
The gossipers moved away, and Erik, Wanda, Rogue and Pietro all became aware that they'd all been paying particular attention to this piece of information.  
  
Pietro raised an eyebrow at Rogue. "You know something about this?"  
  
"No, but Cyndi was in one of my classes." Rogue said slowly. "And she didn't seem like a runaway type. I KNOW runaway types." She looked at Pietro. "How about you?"  
  
Pietro shook his head. "Nope, not us."  
  
The bell rang and Rogue gasped. "Rats! I have to get my French notes! Wanda? Erik? What classes do you have next?"  
  
Wanda disdainfully pulled out a piece of paper and examined it. "Social studies."  
  
"German," Erik said.  
  
"I'll show you where your class is, Wanda," Pietro hurriedly offered.  
  
Wanda nodded reluctantly and stood up.  
  
"And your German class is on the way to French, so you can come with me Erik. You better move it though."  
  
"Oh thank you Rogue," Erik muttered as he followed the girl. "What ever would I do without you?"  
  
**  
  
Tabitha Smith AKA Boom-Boom, wandered aimlessly around Bayville Mall. She had been out on her own for the past two weeks, ever since she had marched out of the Brotherhood house after Mystique and that weirdo new girl had arrived. At first the whole experience was quite fun - no bothersome boys, no school - just her and her own rules, but now.  
  
She looked at her reflection in a shop window and made a face. Sneaking into the showers at school kept her clean, but sleeping rough was definitely taking its toll. However, there was no way in hell that she was going to return to the Brotherhood - not while Mystique was there! - and neither was she going to go back to the Xavier Institute. As she walked out of the mall and look up at the grey sky, a small voice whispered that the Institute wouldn't be that bad, but she clamped down on that thought and marched resolutely on.  
  
"Never going back," she muttered. "Sure they'd all act like they were okay with it, but really they'd be sneering and pitying me. and that would be worse that freezing!"  
  
Besides, she had discovered a really good place to shelter from the rain now. It was a little on the ick side, but she'd be warm and dry. So she hurried into the park and down a path that led her to a large old grating set into a brick wall. Part of the grating was broken, providing enough room for Tabitha to slip through and into the old sewer system. The pipes were huge and old, disused now so they were quite dry and if one didn't mind a slight musty smell of earth and leaves it was a good place to rest. Switching on a torch, Tabitha picked her way past a couple more homeless people, one of them even giving her a small smile and a wave as she passed by. She waved back, but continued on, going deeper into the tunnels. The light from her torch barely penetrated the darkness in front and Tabitha had to swallow hard to quell the irrational fear that welled within her. Finally she reached her destination - a small alcove set into the wall.  
  
"Home sweet home," she said to herself, her voice echoing oddly. "Now. hey! What happened to my blankets?"  
  
She scowled and swung the torch around. Some low-down bum had nicked the two blankets she had left here!  
  
"When I find the." a scraping sound made her pause. "Who's there?" Tabitha formed a 'bomb' on her hand. "Come out where I can see you!"  
  
The scraping sound intensified and was accompanied by a whirring. Stepping backward, Tabitha shone her torch in the direction of the noise.  
  
"I'm warning you. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"  
  
***  
  
"I'm telling you, her eyes glowed!"  
  
"And I'm telling you that it was probably the light!"  
  
"Oh yes, of course, it's a well known scientific fact that electric lights turn people's eyes bright yellow!"  
  
"Risty is NOT a mutant!" Rogue paused before the steps leading up to the Xavier Institute scowled at Erik. "If she was the professor or Cerebro would've picked it up! Ya just imaginin' things!"  
  
Erik threw his hands in the air. "Fine!" he snapped. "Don't believe me!" he leaned in close so that they were nearly nose to nose. "Just don't complain to me if your dear little friend doesn't turn out to be the person you thought she was!"  
  
"Jeez. have you guys been like this ALL day?"  
  
Rogue and Erik whirled to see Kitty standing behind them, an amused look on her face. Rogue jumped back and folded her arms. "What do you mean by that?" she demanded.  
  
Kitty giggled. "Oh, it's been the talk of the school! The mystery new guy and the sparks flying between him, you and Scott! Plus everyone thinks he's related to Pietro! I nearly died laughing a hundred times today!"  
  
"Ah wish you HAD!" Rogue yelled and stomped up the steps and into the mansion, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Kitty winced. "Ooo. like, did I touch a nerve there or what?"  
  
"Is she always like that?" Erik asked, looking after Rogue.  
  
Kitty raised an eyebrow. "You mean unsociable, irritable and prickly? Yeah."  
  
"What on earth was the professor thinking, assigning her to show me about if she's like that?" Erik shook his head as he pushed open the door.  
  
"Probably because she stood up for you and. ulp!" Kitty clapped a hand over her mouth. "Ooops."  
  
Erik's eyes narrowed. "Stood up for me? Why would she need to do that?"  
  
Kitty sweated. "I. uh. I."  
  
//It's alright, Kitty. Erik, I would like to talk to you please.//  
  
Relieved, Kitty fled to the room she shared with Rogue. The other girl was already there, lying on her bed and glaring at the ceiling. She turned her head when Kitty phased through the door and her unfriendly expression darkened. "Ah really have to demand mah own room." Rogue muttered, turning her face away.  
  
Kitty barely heard her, she was so upset with herself. Had she just blown everything?  
  
Meanwhile, Erik entered Professor Xavier's study and marched straight over to the X-Men's leader. "I want some answers, Professor!" he demanded. "Clearly there is something about me that makes many of your students nervous, like we've met before and under unpleasant circumstances. Why did Rogue have to speak in my defence? Why is Summers on my case ALL THE TIME? Why do I look like that boy, Pietro Maximoff?"  
  
Xavier smiled slightly. "If you would just take a breath and listen, Erik, then I may be able to answer some of your questions."  
  
Erik looked slightly abashed. "I apologize," he said stiffly. "But it's been a. well, a trying day."  
  
"So I've heard," Xavier commented. "Erik. you are correct in believing that you have met the X-Men before and you clashed with them. But you were. a different person then, committed to a violent path. You and I were friends and you were always a man of strong convictions and someone haunted by the past."  
  
"If you and I were friends then I can't truly be a teenager," Erik pointed out and Xavier nodded.  
  
"This is true. Something happened to you, an accident I'm guessing, and it rejuvenated your body to this state. Unfortunately I don't know what you did or how to reverse it."  
  
Erik folded his arms. "Alright. So I am a former adversary who has mysteriously de-aged and turned up here. I may not remember WHY I fought you, but many of you think I will remember. However, you have decided to give me a chance to start over and build up my life anew. Am I right so far?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Erik looked away. "That's a lot of trust to invest in someone, Professor."  
  
"Perhaps," -Xavier steepled his fingers- "But I remember our friendship and the good man that you were before we embraced difference ideologies. And it has always been my policy to give people second chances. Like Rogue," he smiled at Erik's obvious surprise. "She was a former adversary of the X- Men, but I was happy to take her on."  
  
Erik's mouth curved into a small answering smile. "Well, in that case I will respect your trust and curb my curiosity. for now," he nodded to Xavier and turned to leave, then he paused. "Speaking of Rogue, she still has."  
  
"Magnetic powers," Xavier nodded. "Yes, I know. It troubles me, but Zaladane's mind does not seem to be bothering her. However, if she keeps these powers then I will have to see that she gets some training in how to use them," he glanced at Erik. "I heard about the school bus."  
  
Erik coughed. "Yes. well."  
  
Xavier eyed Erik with a speculative gleam in his eyes. "Perhaps you would be the best person to teach her."  
  
Erik gaped at him. "Me? A former enemy?" he narrowed his eyes. "Are you _feeling_ alright?"  
  
"Perfectly," Xavier said. "Just think it over, Erik, you don't have to decide right now."  
  
***  
  
Later that evening, Xavier called all of the X-Men and Erik to his study. Once they were all assembled he told them about the mutant girl in a mental institution whom he had been treating for a while. He told them of her powers to affect probability and how she had disappeared two weeks ago.  
  
"I do not think that she escaped on her own," he said. "I suspect there is another's hand in this and that person will use Wanda's powers in dangerous manner."  
  
Rogue and Erik exchanged startled glances. "Wanda? Her name is Wanda?" Rogue asked and Xavier nodded.  
  
"Yes, Wanda Maximoff. She is Pietro's twin sister. She is full of rage fuelled by her hatred for her father who placed her in the institution when her powers became uncontrollable."  
  
"But she seemed so nice," Rogue said in confusion.  
  
The rest of the X-Men stared at her. "You've seen her?" Jean asked.  
  
Rogue nodded. "We talked after." she hesitated, not wanting to let on that she had skipped class. "Uh. anyway. we had lunch together and talked and she seemed okay."  
  
"Just a little prickly," Erik said dryly. All eyes turned to him.  
  
"You spoke to her too?" Scott asked suspiciously.  
  
"Yes Summers, I did," Erik looked coldly at him. "What, I can't _talk_ to anyone without your permission?"  
  
"Why you." Scott felt his eyes burn with anger.  
  
"Erik! Scott!" Xavier's voice cut across the pending argument. "Calm down, both of you."  
  
Scott clenched his fists, but sat down again - although he continued to glare at Erik who also reseated himself.  
  
"So. are you going to tell me not to talk to Wanda again?" Rogue lifted her chin defiantly.  
  
"No," Xavier shook his head. "In fact, I'm glad that you still want to, Rogue. I doubt Wanda has had many friends in her life and it would probably do her good to have one. Just be careful."  
  
***  
  
The Brotherhood house was in its usual state of disrepair and chaos when Pietro walked (well, ran) in the door. Lance was in the kitchen, heating up some left over pizza, Fred was watching TV, eating about three McDonalds Happy Meals and taking up most of the couch while Todd perched on the armrest and occasionally snatched a fry (or a fly).  
  
"Hey," Fred said, waving one hand lazily. "Where've you been?"  
  
Pietro shrugged and started pacing the room. "Just out. thinking about things."  
  
"What things, yo?" Todd asked.  
  
"Just stuff," said Pietro. He paused and looked around. "Is Wanda here?"  
  
"I think she's in her room. Mystique came in and got on her case about being friendly to Rogue," Fred said thickly through a mouthful of hamburger. "Why?"  
  
"Nothing. nothing." Pietro zoomed up the stairs and shot into his own room.  
  
"What's eating him?" Lance wondered from the kitchen doorway.  
  
In his room, Pietro leaned against his bedroom door and fished his cell phone out of his pockets. He stared at it for what seemed like an hour, but was really only a minute and then resumed his rapid pacing. "Whyhasn'thecalled?" he said aloud. It wasn't like _him_ to break an appointment. Something had to be wrong, but what? What could have happened to someone so powerful? And if that wasn't enough there was the whole Wanda problem to deal with AND this new guy - Erik - who just gave Pietro bad vibes. Despite all the denial, Pietro couldn't convince himself that he and Erik didn't look alike and he had a horrible feeling that they really were related.  
  
***  
  
Slowly, Rogue turned the handle and cautiously pulled open the front door. She glanced behind her before slipping out and running quickly down the steps. "Phew." she breathed as she made her way across the front lawn. "Lucky Kitty sleeps like a log!"  
  
"Where _are_ you going?"  
  
Startled she whirled around to see Erik hovering in the air behind her.  
  
"Where the hell did you come from?"  
  
"My room," he said, smirking. "I was looking out of the window and saw you scurrying across the lawn."  
  
"And you had to come an' stick your big nose in where it don't belong!" Rogue snapped, folding her arms and glaring at him irritably.  
  
He lifted an eyebrow. "My nose is not big."  
  
"Look, Erik. what Ah do in mah time is not your concern, so just go back to bed and don't bother me!"  
  
He descended to the ground and matched her glare. "You're planning to find out what happened to that Cyndi girl, aren't you?"  
  
She blinked. "Ah. wh. how did you know?"  
  
"Oh? So I am right?" he grinned and she snarled.  
  
"Ah wish Scott HAD blasted you tonight!"  
  
He ignored the comment. "So why are you doing this? Surely the police."  
  
Rogue made a dismissive gesture. "Hah. Ah doubt they'll find 'em. Anyway, Ah told you that Cyndi wasn't a runaway type and Ah remembered that when she and Ah had to do translate a poem in French she told me that the description of the poem reminded her of Bayville Park at night and that she'd go walking there sometimes when it was a full moon. So Ah checked and the night she vanished was a full moon! Also. the other boy who vanished was also last seen near the park."  
  
"And again I ask, _why_ are you doing this? These people weren't your friends."  
  
"So what?" Rogue cried. She couldn't believe how cold and indifferent he sounded. Was this Magneto bubbling to the surface? "What if there's some looney out there and he's going to grab more kids? Ah have powers and training, Ah might be able to do something."  
  
"So why don't you tell the others?"  
  
She looked away. "Because Ah. if."  
  
"If you're wrong you think they'll laugh?" Erik sighed. "I don't believe I'm saying this, but. I'll come with you and. help. And I promise I won't laugh."  
  
"Yeah, right," Rogue sniffed. "You can come if ya want, Ah don't care," she turned on her heel and started for the gate.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"To the front gate, moron!" she looked back at him, exasperated. "How else am Ah supposed to get out?"  
  
"Fly."  
  
"Huh? Ah can't."  
  
"You can, you have magnetic powers now," he smiled, remembering Xavier's request. *Well, I guess now's as good a time as any for a lesson.* "I can show you."  
  
Rogue's eyes widened. "Fly.?"  
  
She remembered when she had absorbed Magneto's powers a little while back that she had been able to fly after him, but she had used his knowledge and couldn't recall exactly how she could soar into the sky.  
  
"Take my hand," Erik said. "And then concentrate."  
  
Soon they were floating over the mansion and as adrenalin rushed through her, Rogue could feel the goofy grin on her face. "This is great!" she thrilled. "Ah feel so free!"  
  
Erik caught her enthusiasm and found himself grinning back at her. "This is the only way to travel!"  
  
Rogue giggled and executed a back-flip in mid-air. "Too bad the Prof would chew us out if he knew!"  
  
"Who's going to tell him?" Erik smirked.  
  
Rogue giggled again and dealt him a playful shove. "Tag! You're it!" she served out of his way, giggling as he stared at her in confusion. Then his mouth curved into a predatory smile. "Oh. so you think you are better at this than me, eh?"  
  
"Eek!" Rogue squeaked and zoomed out of the way as he dived for her. "Hey! No fair!" she cried as a small bolt of magnetic energy sprang from his fingers and tickled her. "Okay, sugah, this means WAR!"  
  
They play-fought for quite a while until the sight of Bayville Park brought Rogue up short and she recalled her self-appointed mission. As she hovered there, Erik grabbed her from behind and laughed in her ear. "Too slow, Rogue!"  
  
She wriggled out of his grasp and turned on him, trying to keep her expression stern. "Playtime's over. remember why Ah wanted to come here."  
  
It was almost frightening how quickly Erik snapped back into his serious mode. "Then I suggest we find a convenient look-out point."  
  
They stationed themselves in the branches of a large tree near one of the main entrances to the park and waited.  
  
And waited.  
  
And waited.  
  
"Ah think Ah was wrong," Rogue sighed eventually. "And Ah'm getting pins 'n needles in mah legs."  
  
"We have been waiting for over an hour," Erik commented. He surreptitiously tried to shift his position; not wanting to admit that his backside was numb.  
  
Rogue sighed again and floated herself out of the tree and down to the ground. "Mah own fault," she said, rubbing her tingling legs. "Ah shouldn't think Ah'm so smart and try and do stuff by mahself."  
  
"I don't think it was a bad idea," said Erik, landing beside her. "You acted on good instincts. Also, just because nothing has happened tonight doesn't mean that you're wrong."  
  
She looked at him and smiled slightly. "Thanks." she tentatively reached out and touched his shoulder. "Y'know. you can be a really nice guy when you're not bein' all arrogant and stuff."  
  
He quirked an eyebrow at her. "I suppose I should take that as a compliment," his expression relaxed into a smile. "And you can be very." he stopped and swivelled around as footsteps sounded a few metres away.  
  
"Someone's coming!" Rogue grabbed his arm and leapt into the bushes, hauling Erik along with her. They landed in a heap, Erik only just managing to stop his face from coning into contact with Rogue's. There was a brief, quiet scuffle as they sorted themselves out and crouched behind a large bush, peeking through the leaves.  
  
The footsteps belonged to a lanky teenage boy who loped down the path, head bopping in time to the music on his discman. He was so absorbed that he probably wouldn't have noticed the two young mutants if they were standing right next to him. Erik and Rogue kept him in their sights until he rounded the corner and then both sighed.  
  
"Well, that was rather anticlimactic," Erik said, getting to his feet and brushing dirt off his trousers. "Perhaps the other two students did run away."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"  
  
They froze for a second, but Erik was soon in the air and flying towards the scream at top speed, Rogue close behind him. Ready to fight, they rounded the corner and found nothing except for the discman lying on the edge of the path.  
  
"Looks like it was torn off him," Rogue said. "But Ah can't see any sign of."  
  
"A struggle? No, neither can I," Erik frowned. "Nor any sign of a trail. It's as if he just vanished into thin air."  
  
Rogue nibbled nervously at her lower lip. "Ah don't know what to do about this," she confessed. "Should Ah tell the Professor and the others or should we just keep quiet for now?"  
  
"And continue to stake out the park?" Erik looked vaguely amused. He stooped and picked up the discman. "Honestly, I don't think we have much to go on here. unless Wolverine can sniff out a trail. I suggest keeping it quiet - for now," he looked rather disdainful. "I'm sure between the two of us, we are more than a match for anything that crosses OUR path."  
  
Rogue rolled her eyes. "Just when ya start getting bearable you suddenly get annoying!" she grumbled. "Well. okay. we'll come here again and keep watch for now. But," she looked at her hands. "Ah'm gonna have to do some practice with these powers if Ah'm going to be fighting with 'em."  
  
*** To be continued 


	3. Chapter Two: Wednesday

Opposites Attract An X-Men Evolution Fanfiction by Jaelle and Orla  
  
***  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts we still don't own them. damnit!  
  
***  
  
Chapter Two: Wednesday Invitation, Stakeout and exposure  
  
***  
  
"It should be a crime to make someone get up so early in the morning and fight for their life in that room!" Erik grumbled, exiting the danger room. Scott smirked at him.  
  
"Sorry about that, Erik. Somehow it got stuck on one of Wolverine's programs and those are always tough."  
  
Erik shot Scott a narrow glare, but declined to comment. He had a good idea why that particular program had been used. The only reason he hadn't wrapped an iron bar around Scott's head was because he had managed to defeat the various obstacles quite spectacularly. Apart from feeling tired and bruised, Erik was pleased with himself. There was only one question on his mind.  
  
"Surely I must have had a codename," he said as he pushed open the breakfast room.  
  
There was a long pause as everyone looked nervously at each other and then applied themselves to breakfast with forced jollity.  
  
"MMmm, those pancakes look delicious!"  
  
"Sausages! Yes!"  
  
"Urgh. Kurt, those things are, like, so fatty! You should eat."  
  
"Kitty, if I ate what you eat then I would starve!"  
  
"Pass me the orange juice!"  
  
Erik raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh," he looked in Rogue's direction and went to sit down by her. "Was my codename something that bad?"  
  
She gulped. "Er. no. not really, but it's ummmm."  
  
He took pity on her discomfort and smiled. "Well, perhaps I should think of one, since you all have them."  
  
"Jean doesn't," Rogue pointed out. She wrinkled her nose. "Although apparently she was considering 'Marvel Girl' for a while. yuck! Sounds like a sixties B grade super hero."  
  
Erik picked up a pen and began scribbling on a paper napkin. "Let's see. I have magnetic powers, so it should be something to reflect that." he muttered. "Magnetix? No. no. Metallic? Absolutely not. Mag.. Magnet. hmmm.. Magnet."  
  
"How about. ummm. Metalsmith?" Rogue offered quickly interrupting him.  
  
"Metalsmith?" he considered it. "Well, I suppose that's not too bad. Now, I wonder what sort of costume I should have.."  
  
Rogue sat watching him for a while, but she had to leave when he started sketching an outfit that had a big 'M' on its front, otherwise she would have fallen off her chair laughing.  
  
"So if anyone needs tickets then I've got enough for ALL of us," Jean was talking to a crowd of the New Mutants in the hallway as Rogue exited the breakfast room. "And I expect your full support, ok?"  
  
What goody-good cause is she involved in NOW? Rogue wondered. She skulked along the wall, hoping that Jean and the New Mutants wouldn't look in her direction. Luckily, the younger teens were all enthusiastically clamouring for the tickets Jean was holding up and the noise covered Rogue's footsteps. However.  
  
"So," Kitty popped up from nowhere and started walking beside Rogue. "What are you going to wear to the Ball?"  
  
Rogue blinked. "What Ball?"  
  
"Duh! The Charity Ball of course! The one that Jean's helping organise! Apparently it's going to have a really cool theme and there's going to be a great band and everything!"  
  
Rogue wrinkled her nose. "Who said Ah was going to it anyway?"  
  
Kitty blinked. "What? Oh come on Rogue! It's going to, like, totally rock! How can you stay away?"  
  
"Easily," Rogue glared at Kitty. "Ah don't like places with big crowds and besides." she couldn't stop the slightly wistful tone entering her voice. "Nobody's asked me."  
  
"Hey girl, this IS modern times!" Kitty giggled. "Just ASK someone yourself!" she nudged Rogue with her elbow. "Maybe even Erik?"  
  
Rogue's cheeks reddened. "No way!" she cried. "Why would Ah go with HIM?"  
  
"OOooh." Kitty looked speculatively at her. "I think you're, like, scared."  
  
"Ah am NOT!"  
  
"So you WILL go with him?"  
  
"Of course Ah WILL!" Rogue paused as her words trickled through her brain. "Aw. nuts."  
  
***  
  
Wanda ran her fingers through her short hair and looked at her reflection in the mirror. With a satisfied nod, she turned away and walked out, her face settling into the usual sullen expression, her eyes burning with suppressed anger.  
  
She had dreamed of her father again last night. Once more he was placing her in the mental institution, ignoring her pleas and walking away as she screamed for him. But then something odd had happened. Instead of the dream ending with her watching helplessly from the barred window as the car carrying her father and brother drove away, Wanda found herself at school. She was standing at the front entrance and beside her, grinning, was Rogue. Wanda wasn't quite sure what to make of this dream or of Rogue for that matter. She had never had any friends that she could remember and having someone - who was not crazy - to talk to was a totally new experience.  
  
As she walked down the stairs she passed Mystique who reached out and grabbed Wanda's shoulder, pulling the teenager to an abrupt halt.  
  
"You shouldn't let yourself get too close to the X-Men," Mystique said softly. "You can bet that Xavier's told them all about you now. They'll regard you as an enemy, and a particularly dangerous one at that."  
  
Wanda shook off Mystique's hand. "I don't need your advice!" she snarled and stalked away.  
  
Mystique watched her go, her brow furrowed in an angry, yet thoughtful frown.  
  
***  
  
Rogue balanced her food tray carefully and slowly scanned the cafeteria. She'd just come from what had possibly been the most boring mathematics class in the history of math, and had left in such a hurry that Pietro had blinked in surprise as she hurtled past him down the corridor. He'd then smirked in amusement as Erik came sprinting after her yelling for her to slow down, wait up, hang on a second... whatever!  
  
"Lover's quarrel?" A number of people had called after the pursuing boy, and he'd been absolutely fuming by the time he caught up with her. Or at least, caught up with her location.  
  
"Honestly," he stared at the closed door of the women's toilets. "If she'd HAD to go why didn't she just ask for the bathroom pass?"  
  
He'd waited outside for fifteen minutes before realising he'd been ditched and he was receiving some odd looks from the students walking by.  
  
Meanwhile, Rogue continued to search the cafeteria until she spotted a familiar face.  
  
She slowly and carefully made her way over to Wanda, who spotted her coming and shot her a glare. Rogue ignored it, recognising it as a standard "leave me alone, I hate everyone" glare and continued to head over.  
  
"Hey Rogue! Over here!" Risty waved at her from a table.  
  
"Can't. Gotta talk to someone. Later." Rogue walked past and finally sat down next to Wanda.  
  
"Hey." She said.  
  
Wanda gave her an unfriendly look.  
  
"That won't work on me," Rogue informed her.  
  
The unfriendly look deepened. Rogue matched it with one of her own.  
  
People began to watch.  
  
Wanda's turned angry. Rogue's turned nasty.  
  
The entire cafeteria waited with bated breath.  
  
Wanda's eyes flickered with rage. Rogue stuck out her tongue.  
  
The cafeteria face-faulted.  
  
Wanda cracked up. Rogue joined her.  
  
After the two girls had stopped laughing, they settled down to eat their lunch.  
  
"So I guess you've heard all about me," Wanda said, still slightly suspicious.  
  
"Yep, everything from your natural hair colour to the cute little mole on your butt."  
  
"I don't have a mole on my butt!" Wanda blushed as neighbouring tables of students turned to stare at her.  
  
"Mah mistake," Rogue grinned.  
  
"You'll pay for that."  
  
"Ooooh... Ah'm shaking."  
  
"You should be." Wanda ate another bite of her sandwich. "So where's Erik?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
The girls snickered.  
  
"There you are!" Erik's exasperated voice interrupted them. He leant on the table, hands planted firmly on the surface and glared at Rogue. "Are you purposefully trying to embarrass me?"  
  
Rogue raised her eyebrows. "Ah never asked you to follow me!" she snapped.  
  
"I was trying to give you back this!" Erik flicked a pen towards her. "Excuse me for trying to be nice!"  
  
Rogue blinked and took the pen. "Umm. Ah."  
  
"Just what is your problem today?" he continued. "You refuse to speak to me and then glare at me all morning. As far as I know I haven't done anything wrong and after last night." he sat down and regarded her intently. "I thought we were starting to get along."  
  
"Last night?" Wanda asked, her eyes bright with curiosity. "What happened?" she paused. "Er. then again, maybe that's something I don't want to know."  
  
"It's nothing like that!" Rogue protested. "We just. umm." she glanced around and then leaned closer to Wanda. "We went to Bayville Park last night to do some investigations."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"On the people who disappeared," Rogue explained. "Ah just had this weird feeling that there's someone or some thing that's responsible." she went on to tell Wanda about the boy who disappeared and the other girl's eyes went wide.  
  
"And you're going to check it out again tonight?" she asked. When they nodded, she leaned forward eagerly. "Can I come? An extra pair of eyes is always handy, right?"  
  
Erik was about to protest, but Rogue jumped in. "Sure you can," she said, smiling. "It'll be fun!"  
  
"Fun?" Erik spluttered. "We're trying to track down someone who may or may not be kidnapping teenagers for some sick purpose and you call that fun?"  
  
"What's fun?" Pietro suddenly appeared at the table and they all jumped.  
  
"Don't DO that!" Wanda snarled. Her plate suddenly dissolved and the food turned rock hard.  
  
"Sorry," Pietro didn't sound very apologetic. "So what's fun? I like fun."  
  
"None of your business," Rogue and Wanda snapped.  
  
***  
  
"Rogue. are you trying to avoid me?" Risty asked, catching up with the other girl on her way to geography.  
  
Rogue felt guilty. "Ah'm sorry, Risty. Ah didn't mean to, it's just. well, with showin' Erik around and all. Ah've been pretty busy."  
  
"And Wanda?" Risty fiddled with the edge of her book. "What's the deal there?"  
  
"Huh?" Rogue looked at her friend in surprise. "Risty, are you mad because Ah've been making friends with Wanda? Ah'm sorry Ah brushed you off at lunch, but Ah. well, Ah'd just learnt some stuff about her and Ah wanted."  
  
"Don't you find her a little scary?" Risty asked quietly. "She hardly ever smiles and she HATES her brother and her father. not exactly a charming person to get to know!"  
  
Rogue frowned. "How do you know she hates her Daddy?"  
  
Inwardly Mystique winced. Her agitation over Rogue was making her unusually clumsy. "Oh. well, I heard it when I was showing her around."  
  
"Well, Ah don't see why Ah shouldn't try and be nice to her," Rogue said with a shrug as they entered the classroom. "Actually she reminds me a bit of. well, me. Ah can understand where she's coming from."  
  
"I still say she seems a bit dangerous," said Risty. "You should be careful."  
  
Rogue rolled her eyes. "Yes, 'momma'!" she joked, not noticing the brief pain that flashed through Risty's eyes. "Anyway, Wanda isn't mah biggest problem right now."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
Rogue sighed. "Ah have to figure out a way to ask Erik to the Charity Ball!"  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
**  
  
"Erik! Hey, wait up a second!"  
  
Erik turned around halfway up the Xavier mansion driveway and glared at Rogue. "Oh, so now you want _me_ to wait for _you_."  
  
Rogue glared back, then collected herself and looked around nervously. "So, anyway, Ah, um..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What Ah mean to say is, that is, you know, if you're not busy, but you probably are, but you don't have to, plans can be changed, it'll probably be stupid anyway, but you know, it's for charity and, um..." Rogue babbled nervously.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"And Friday's usually such a busy day and Ah'll understand if you don't want to and you probably don't because who wants to go anyway? So, bye."  
  
As Rogue walked past Erik he grabbed her arm and looked at her in confusion. "What _exactly_ are you trying to say?" He demanded.  
  
She glared at him. "It doesn't matter, you're too busy anyway."  
  
"WHAT? I don't, argh! What am I supposed to be too busy _for_? You haven't _told_ me anything!" Erik shouted in exasperation.  
  
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about," Rogue snapped.  
  
"But I DON'T!"  
  
"Duh," Rogue tugged her arm free. "The charity ball this Friday of course!"  
  
"What?" Erik shook his head in confusion. "I really don't understand what you're talking about. Something about a ball... and.?"  
  
Rogue snarled at him and the pieces came together in Erik's head. "Oh! You want to go to the ball!"  
  
"JERK!" Rogue snapped.  
  
Erik stared at her. "_Oh_, you want ME to go to the ball with YOU!"  
  
"YES! No. Yes. No. Sort of. It's complicated. And you're probably too busy. It was a stupid idea anyway."  
  
"Okay!" Erik yelled. "I'll go! Just stop talking!"  
  
"And there's probably about a million girls you'd rather go with anyway and... What?"  
  
"I said I'll go! With you. To the ball." Erik said clearly. "Okay?"  
  
"Well. Okay I guess."  
  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, OKAY I GUESS!!!"  
  
Logan looked out the window and raised his eyebrow at the sight of Rogue and Erik bickering and walking across the lawn. "Sheesh. Kids."  
  
***  
  
"So." Wanda looked around the park. "What do we do?"  
  
"Keep watch," said Rogue promptly. "And find a comfortable place to watch from."  
  
They managed to find a tree with broad, low branches and perched. Rogue went to check out the main entrance and the other two waited. For a while there was silence, and then Erik became aware that Wanda was scrutinizing him intently.  
  
"You're supposed to be watching the park," he said and she blinked.  
  
"I know that!" Wanda snapped. "But." she frowned. "You DO look a lot like my brother you know. it's very weird because I'm sure you're not an older brother of mine."  
  
"Hey, Wanda. can you check out the other entrance?" Rogue asked, coming back to them. She was rubbing her thigh. "There's nothing at the main gate, just a couple of cats that freaked me out and caused me to bang into the wall."  
  
"Sure," Wanda shrugged and left. Rogue sat down and sighed. "Man. am Ah tired." she said. "Tonight and last night are catching up on me. hey, what's wrong?"  
  
Erik hesitated, but then told her what Wanda had said. Rogue swallowed nervously. "Y-yeah. it's an odd thing, isn't it." she said. "But. hey, tell me something." She said suddenly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"If you had a kid and sh. they were weird, would you lock he.. them up in a mental home?"  
  
Erik blinked. "What brought this on?" he looked at her. "Do I have children then?"  
  
Rogue fidgeted. "I said if," was her only reply.  
  
He rolled his eyes, deciding not push her - yet. "Alright, alright. IF I had a child and it was weird. what do you mean by weird anyway? If the child was weird as in dangerous to itself and others then perhaps I would have no choice."  
  
"It's not a very nice thing to do to your own kid!" Rogue said.  
  
"Well. no, but all I'm saying is that there's two sides to any story and if you don't know one then it's a little hard to judge!" Erik snapped. He suddenly remembered the other night when Xavier told them all about Wanda and Rogue's line of questioning - along with a few other things - started to make horrible sense. "This is about Wanda, isn't it?"  
  
Rogue couldn't meet his eyes. "It's all hypothetical," she mumbled, letting her hair fall forward, obscuring her face. A strong finger and thumb encased in smooth gloves gripped her chin and forced her head up. Erik pushed aside her hair and stared into her face. "Are Wanda and Pietro my children? Am I the one who put Wanda in the institution?"  
  
Rogue swallowed nervously. "Well. umm. yeah. Ah guess you are their daddy." she said.  
  
He sighed. "Well, at least that clears up the resemblance question," he raised an eyebrow. "Do they know who I am? No, don't answer. they clearly don't. Otherwise I suspect that I would have been attacked several times over by now."  
  
"Well, Wanda does have cause," Rogue said defensively. "Ah couldn't figure how a man could do that to his daughter!"  
  
"And you thought trying to ask hypothetical questions of a man with amnesia would tell you why Wanda was locked up?" Erik shook his head. "Rogue, how can I give you any answers if I don't know them myself?"  
  
She flushed. "Well. it was kinda stupid, ah admit, but." her lashes veiled her eyes. "Ah guess Ah wanted to know if you'd do the same thing now. and it seems like." she suddenly felt inexplicable tears pricking her eyelids. "It seems like you would."  
  
He exhaled heavily, breath ruffling her hair. "It's not the same thing, Rogue. I don't know what kind of person I was, perhaps I didn't have cause to lock her away, but now. well, I would like to think that I'd consider the situation very carefully before reaching such a difficult decision."  
  
Rogue looked back up at him then and smiled slightly. "Well. that's something ah guess."  
  
"Achem!" Wanda cleared her throat and they both jumped and sprang apart. The short- haired girl looked at them with an amused smirk. "Did I come at a bad time?"  
  
"N-no, we were just talking!" Rogue insisted - hating herself for stuttering and blushing at the same time. "Did you find anything?"   
  
"Nada," Wanda said with a sigh, seating herself. "Are you sure.?"   
  
"A boy disappeared right by this spot last night," said Erik. "Of course that doesn't mean that there will be another attack right here, but we don't have much more to go on."   
  
"I'm surprised that you two haven't told the other X-Men yet," confessed Wanda. "Aren't you all supposed to be one big happy family team?" there was a distinct sneer in her voice.   
  
"Yeah," said Rogue. "Ah guess, but sometimes that can be a bit." she hesitated. "Suffocating, you know?"   
  
"I don't," said Wanda curtly. "I've never had that sort of experience. Family means nothing to me."   
  
Erik winced.   
  
***  
  
Tabitha's return to consciousness was slow and her mind remained muddled long after her eyes had opened. This may have had something to do with the fact that she found herself in some sort of warm cocoon that kept her curled up and was made of some opaque material that blurred everything outside. What is this? Am I being kept in 'storage' or something? But that. thing. that got me didn't look like it would eat people.   
  
She concentrated, trying to generate some of her little 'bombs', but nothing happened. Tabby whimpered, feeling more helpless and lost than she could ever remember. No powers, nobody knew where she was, no way out of this cocoon.   
  
"Don't cry, pumpkin," a sugary, sickeningly sweet voice murmured near her ear. Tabby realised that someone (or something) was standing by her cocoon. "You are safe and sound here. Go to sleep little one and dream sweet dreams. You will have some friends joining you soon."   
  
Tears flowed down Tabby's cheeks. Professor! She screamed her thoughts as loud as she could, Please! You HAVE to hear me! Professor Xavier! Help me!   
  
But there was no answer and Tabitha eventually gave up and fell into a distressed sleep, despairing of ever being freed.  
  
***  
  
"Well that was a waste of time," Erik commented as he and Rogue landed outside the mansion. "Apart from spending quality time with a daughter who doesn't know who I am and if she did would kill me."  
  
"Haha," Rogue said sarcastically. "You think you're so witty."  
  
"I am," he said. "By the way, was there a reason for cutting the stakeout shorter? It's only twelve thirty and last night we didn't get back until two am."  
  
"Well, Ah don't know about _you_, but Ah was feeling pretty wiped during the morning's Danger Room session. plus Ah could hardly keep mah eyes open in class!"  
  
"Considering how dull some of those classes are, I'm surprised that you don't fall asleep more often."  
  
"Unlike SOME people Ah need to get an education," Rogue snapped. "Anyway, here's mah room, see you in the morning."  
  
"Of course," he waved and started walking towards the area where the boys' dormitory was.  
  
Rogue levitated herself up to the second floor level and reached out for the edge of the open window to the bedroom that she shared with Kitty. She had decided to leave it open to make her return easier considering that the last time she had nearly run into Evan who was on a midnight food run.  
  
However, at that very moment, Kitty had just returned from the bathroom and noticed the curtain waving in the breeze. Frowning and feeling a little nervous she went over to the window and yanked the curtain back.  
  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Kitty screamed at the top of her voice when confront with the pale face floating outside the window.  
  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Rogue screamed involuntarily and immediately lost her concentration and fell. She hit the ground with a painful thud and lay there, rather stunned.  
  
"Are you alright?" Erik rushed over to her. "What happened?"  
  
"Ow. ow. ow."  
  
"Oh my God. I. oh. Rogue? Erik?" Kitty suddenly phased out of the wall. "Oh. you nearly a heart attack, I thought you were. like. some monster or vampire."  
  
"I told you that you should do something about that make-up."  
  
"Shut UP, Erik!" Rogue swiped at him and got to her feet, wincing. "I nearly gave YOU a heart attack? You nearly KILLED me!"  
  
"But like. what were you doing out there anyway at midnight. whatever. and." Kitty paused. "Wait a sec. how DID you get up there?"  
  
"Uh, um... Erik levitated me up there," Rogue said hastily.  
  
Erik raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing.  
  
"Ohhhh..." Kitty smiled knowingly. "So you and _Erik_ were out late tonight huh?"  
  
"NO!" Rogue blinked. "Ah mean yes, but no! But sort of, but..."  
  
"I think we've had this conversation," Erik said tiredly.  
  
There was a loud BAMF and Kurt appeared before them. "Vas is happening?!" He demanded. "What is all the screaming about?"  
  
"Well, um, Rogue was outside my window and she was kind of flying, but she says that Erik was levitating her but that seems kind of weird since he was still panting from sprinting over to her after she fell when I got here and that seems odd because, like, wouldn't you need to be near her anyway to lift her up and what is with the uniforms and Rogue says they were out together but not together and I'm really confused."  
  
By the time Kitty had finished, the rest of the X-Men, the New Mutants, and the teachers (minus Xavier) had arrived.  
  
"She said that all in one breath?!" Erik didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified.  
  
"We think it's part of her mutant powers," Rogue snarked.  
  
"I think a few explanations are in order," Storm said. "What have you two been up to?"  
  
Rogue took a deep breath. "Well, you see..."  
  
"We were doing some late night training," Erik interrupted.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why would Rogue need training from YOU?" Jean demanded.  
  
Erik winced. "It's kind of awkward. You see..." he trailed off, looking at Rogue apologetically.  
  
Rogue sighed. "Ah still have Zaladane's powers."  
  
"You WHAT?"  
  
Everyone took a step back from Rogue.  
  
"Oh way to show your support! Thanks a lot!" Rogue snapped. "Ah knew you'd all react this way, Ah _knew_ it! Ah knew Ah couldn't tell you. Thanks a LOT everyone! It really means a lot to me to know how much you care. GOOD NIGHT!"  
  
She levitated herself back into the air, gestured the window open, and flew in.  
  
"I don't understand," Scott said.  
  
//All of you please come inside and I will explain// Xavier's voice echoed in their minds.  
  
Slowly, all except Erik displaying varying degrees of vexation and puzzlement, the X-Men filed back inside to their mentor's study. Erik hesitated at first, wondering if he should come since Xavier probably wouldn't be telling them anything he didn't know.  
  
//Come in, Erik. Your input will be valuable here//  
  
Casting a worried glance in the direction of the girls' dorms, Erik followed the others.  
  
And up in her room, Rogue buried her head in her pillow and cried.  
  
*** To be continued. 


	4. Chapter Three: Thursday

Chapter Three: Thursday Fights, bets and nasty things in the sewers.  
  
***  
  
Disclaimer: Not ours, belonging to Marvel and etc, etc.  
  
***  
  
The conversation at the breakfast table was muted the next morning, as everyone tried to come to grips with last night's revelations that Rogue still possessed the magnetic powers of Zaladane.  
  
"So, she's not going to go all freaky?"  
  
"No! You heard what the Professor said. The memories seem to have died away but she's still got the powers."  
  
"And Zaladane's in the stasis thingy right? Like Juggernaut? Maybe if she comes out of it, Rogue'll lose the abilities."  
  
"Yeah, but didn't the Prof say Zaladane still hadn't come around by the time they locked her up? That's like four hours! Rogue's NEVER knocked anyone out for that long."  
  
"So she could really take our powers for good?"  
  
Everyone glared at Amara, who blushed and shrunk down. "I'm only asking?"  
  
"Maybe it was something Zaladane did?" Jean suggested. "After all, she did grab on to Rogue and wouldn't let go."  
  
"Yeah but..."  
  
"SHHHH! She's coming!" Jamie hissed from the door. He dove for his seat as Rogue walked in the door. Silently, she took her seat and grabbed some toast.  
  
"Uhm, good morning Rogue," Kurt said. "How are you today?"  
  
In answer, Rogue levitated the orange juice towards her. "Well at least Ah don't have to HIDE it anymore!" she said harshly, without meeting their eyes.  
  
"Rogue, we're sorry, we..."  
  
"Save it!" Rogue snapped.  
  
"No Rogue, you really need to listen to us," Jean said forcefully. "We're sorry we reacted that way last night. We really are. And none of us are very proud of it. You're one of us, and we're here to help you in any way we can. We know you would never hurt any of us."  
  
Rogue glanced at the rest of them through her hair. "Hmph." She stood up and walked off.  
  
"Well that went better than I expected," said Kitty.  
  
"Sadly, I have to agree," said Jean.  
  
Erik walked into the room. "Is there any orange juice left?"  
  
Everyone glared at him.  
  
"What? WHAT? I didn't do anything!"  
  
***  
  
Scott wandered down the corridor in-between first and second period, trying to avoid the crush. He was still thinking about the events of last night and what it would mean to the team, when he spotted a familiar length of red hair. He immediately remembered something else that he had promised himself he would do today.  
  
"Jean! Hey!" Scott ran over to her.  
  
"Oh Scott, hi!" Jean smiled at him.  
  
"So, um, how are things going with the ticket selling for the charity ball?" Scott asked.  
  
"Great! Nearly sold out!" Jean enthused. "You're coming too, aren't you?'  
  
"Oh yeah, of course," Scott cleared his throat. "I'm sorry I didn't get around to buying any tickets yet."  
  
"That's okay, I've still got a couple saved," Jean felt around in her backpack. "So, how many tickets?"  
  
"Er, so, uh," Scott faltered. "Um, two?"  
  
"Okay!" Jean started leafing through an envelope. "Who are you going with?" she asked casually, as she handed him the tickets and flicked a glance at him through her lashes.  
  
"Well..."  
  
"Duncan's already asked me..." Jean's voice trailed off suggestively. She looked away and carried on "But I..."  
  
When she turned back, Scott was gone.  
  
"AGH!"  
  
Meanwhile, Scott stomped back to his locker and was halfway there before realising he already had his books. Growling, he turned around and smacked into Evan.  
  
"Yo dude, what's the rush?" Evan rubbed his shoulder.  
  
"Oh, ah! Nothing!" Scott responded angrily.  
  
Evan looked at him nervously. "Aw man, don't tell me - you asked Jean to go to the Charity Ball but she's already going with Duncan?"  
  
"Rrrrrgh."  
  
"DAMMIT!" Evan griped. "Now I'm out ten bucks."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Evan grinned sheepishly. "Uh well, you see, me and Kurt had this bet going that you'd and Jean would go to the ball. He said you wouldn't, I said you would." Evan sighed. "Oh well, maybe I can win my money back on this Rogue/Erik thing."  
  
"What Rogue/Erik thing?" Scott demanded.  
  
"Oh! Kitty dared Rogue to go to the ball with Erik, and Kurt said yes and I said no way, but we haven't heard..."  
  
"Rogue's asking Erik to go to the ball?" Scott asked.  
  
"Yeah man, haven't you noticed how close they've been getting?"  
  
"Rrrgh! I don't believe this!" Scott turned on his heels and stormed off.  
  
Evan stared after him. "Man. what's his problem?"  
  
Scott strode down to where Rogue's locker was located and found the skunk- haired girl there. She had just taken out her books when Scott braked beside her. "Ah! Scott!" Rogue blinked. "What are you doing here?" she felt her heart beat a little faster. "Can Ah help you?"  
  
Scott drew in a deep breath. "Rogue, I want you to be my date to the ball this Friday," he said quickly.  
  
Rogue nearly dropped her books. "Wh. wha. huh?" she stammered. "Oh. Ah. Ah can't."  
  
"Why not?" Scott felt a cold chill run through him. "Oh no, you've asked HIM, haven't you?"  
  
Rogue flushed at his accusatory tone. "If by _him_ you mean _Erik_, then. yeah."  
  
"I don't BELIEVE it! How could you?" Scott demanded.  
  
Several students paused to watch, some whispering and snickering.  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know!"  
  
"It looks like Summers is have some sort of. lovers quarrel with Rogue."  
  
"Rogue? I didn't think he was in to HER."  
  
Rogue's eyes widened. "What do you mean, how could Ah? What business is it of yours who AH go to a stupid ball with?"  
  
"He is NOT good enough for you! You know who he is! How can you trust a guy like that?"  
  
Rogue's temper flared. "Who are you to tell who's good enough? You're not my brother! OR my BOYFRIEND!" she yelled. "You can't control who go out with or what Ah do!"  
  
"I am NOT trying to control you! All I'm saying is that you'd be better off going with ME!"  
  
"Oh my God! Did you hear that?"  
  
"Rogue turned down Scott Summers to go with the new guy!"  
  
"Wow. this is like a soap opera! A real love triangle!"  
  
"If you wanted to go with ME, then you shoulda asked me FIRST! Like, maybe two days ago? Not the day BEFORE the ball when you have OBVIOUSLY already been turned down by Jean!" Rogue screamed at Scott. "Now leave me ALONE! Ah don't want to be someone's second choice!" And with that parting shot, she ran off down the corridor leaving a flabbergasted Scott staring after her and million whispers circulating.  
  
Oblivious to the controversy raging around him, Scott slumped against the lockers. "Is there any way that could have gone worse? Nope. I don't think so." he sighed. "Oh well. at least that's as bad as it's going to get."  
  
"SUMMERS!"  
  
The lockers gave a collective jump and Scott whirled to face Erik. The silver-haired boy was glaring at him, fists clenched and eyes blazing. "What did you DO to Rogue?"  
  
"Go away, Erik!" Scott snarled. "I really don't want to talk about it."  
  
"Too bad!" Erik slammed a fist into one of the lockers. "She was crying! What did you say to her? Is this about last night?"  
  
There was a collective gasp from the multitudes assembled around them.  
  
"No, but we ARE going to talk about that sometime soon!" Scott replied angrily. "I was just trying to tell her how you can't be trusted!"  
  
"What is your problem, Summers? I have _never_ done ANYTHING to you!"  
  
"Ha!" Scott snorted. "I know your past record and leopards don't change their spots! You're treacherous, manipulative."  
  
"Successful with women?" Erik smirked. "That's what this is about, isn't it Summers? You're jealous!"  
  
Scott's fists clenched. "I AM NOT!" he yelled. "I am just concerned about Rogue!"  
  
"Well you can STOP being 'just concerned'!" Erik snarled. "I'll look after her much better than you EVER could!"  
  
"Oh yeah?"  
  
"Achem!" the potential fistfight was abruptly interrupted by the appearance of Principal Kelly. "I don't know if any of you have noticed, but the bell for class rang five minutes ago!"  
  
There was mass exodus and soon the corridor was empty of all except for Kelly, Erik and Scott.  
  
"I am disappointed in you, Scott Summers, I would have expected better from a student of your calibre, but here you are starting a public brawl!"  
  
"But."  
  
"You both have detention. I will see you both at lunchtime in my office!"  
  
They stared after the Principal's retreating back and then looked at each other in disgust. "Detention? With _you_?"  
  
***  
  
Rogue slid into her normal lunch seat, looking around in confusion. Normally either Risty or Wanda would have been here by now, or at least Erik. But she was alone. Rogue wondered where they were, and then she wondered since when she included Wanda and Erik as part of her "normal" life. It was all so confusing.  
  
It had been a very strange day. And a very strange week. In fact, most of her life had been strange, but this morning was certainly taking the first prize award for strangeness right now. First that insane blow-up with Scott, then she'd been plagued all morning by people saying 'hi' to her, and asking how everything was. Girls chatted to her in the bathroom as she reapplied lipstick, guys smiled at her, and she'd had two offers of dates this weekend. She'd turned both of them down, and had been further confused when the guys had just smirked at her, and said they understood, she was probably too busy. What was going on?  
  
"Hey there Miss Popularity," Risty dropped into the seat opposite her. "So, I hear you've been cutting a swathe through the men today?"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Oh?" Risty looked at her sideways. "It's all everyone's talking about - you're the dark horse of romance in Bayville."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Oh you know, Scott Summers asking you out, but you going with Erik, a steamy love triangle, the two boys fighting over you..."  
  
"They had a fight?!" Rogue was alarmed.  
  
"Why do you think they're not here?" Risty laughed. "They're in detention, the pair of them."  
  
"Ah can't believe this!" Rogue cried. "Can't leave them alone for a moment! Men!"  
  
"So," Risty smirked, "is this your big plan? Gonna finally get Scott Summers by making him jealous?"  
  
"No!"  
  
Risty pouted. "But it's such a _good_ plan. I mean, he did ask you to the ball, right?"  
  
"Yeah! But only because JEAN wouldn't go with him."  
  
"Are you sure?" Risty inquired. "Because I overheard some girls talking to Jean, and _she_ says he never even ASKED her. She seemed quite annoyed about it."  
  
"Well, he was being a total jerk and all, 'you must do what I say', 'Erik's not good enough for you'..."  
  
"Well he isn't!" Risty blurted.  
  
"Risty! I thought you would be a little more supportive! Erik is just fine," Rogue snapped. "He's polite and... mostly nice."  
  
"And arrogant, not like Scott," Risty interjected. "Now he's sweet, and so cute too!"  
  
"Erik's cute," Rogue responded angrily. "And at least he's prepared to be more flexible about the rules and everything. Not like 'everything has to be perfect' Summers."  
  
"But Scott..."  
  
"Ah've had enough!" Rogue stood up. "Ah'm going to the ball with Erik. If YOU like Scott so much, why don't YOU ask him!"  
  
She stormed off.  
  
Risty watched her go and a thoughtful expression crossed her face.  
  
**  
  
"Scott! Oh Scott!"  
  
Scott paused and glanced over his shoulder.  
  
"Oh, hi Risty." He said. "What's up?"  
  
"Nothing special," Risty said. "I was talking to Rogue at lunchtime, and she told me about what was going on. I'm so sorry Scott. You know, I always thought that you and Rogue would make a nice couple."  
  
"Uhm thanks, I think," said Scott.  
  
"So, I had an idea," said Risty. "YOU don't want Rogue to be with Erik, and _I_ don't want Rogue to be with Erik..."  
  
"You don't?" Scott was surprised. "I thought you liked him!"  
  
"There's just something about him I don't trust," Risty answered. "I'm worried about my friend, and she's not listening to me," she shook her head sorrowfully. Tears glimmered in her eyes. "I'm afraid he might do something bad to her. He can be so... cold."  
  
"You don't know the half of it," Scott said morosely.  
  
"Anyway, my idea was for you and me to go to the ball together and keep an eye on them both," Risty smiled.  
  
"I don't know, I don't think Rogue would like it if she thought we were spying on her." Scott said. "She'd think we didn't trust her."  
  
"We're not going to spy on _Rogue_, we're going to keep an eye on _Erik_," Risty said.  
  
"Well, when you put it that way, okay I'm in." Scott decided.  
  
"Excellent!" Risty clapped her hands together. "I'm sure this will work out perfectly for all of us!"  
  
"Where do I pick you up?" Scott asked.  
  
"Uh... why don't I meet you at the mansion," Risty said. "My place is a little out of the way."  
  
"Okay, see you at 7 tomorrow!" Scott waved and headed off.  
  
Risty grinned ferally behind him. "Oh, this should be entertaining. And, if Magneto places ONE finger wrong, I will enjoy ripping it off."  
  
***  
  
"Some people have all the luck!" Evan was grumbling when Kitty walked into the lounge. She watched in puzzled astonishment as he reluctantly handed over some money to Kurt who was grinning broadly.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked.  
  
"I have won two bets today!" Kurt gloated and Kitty's eyes widened.  
  
"Oh. My. God! You mean Rogue, like, asked Erik to the ball and Scott isn't going with Jean?"  
  
"Yeah," Evan flung himself down on the couch. "Although I guess that news pales in comparison with the rumours flying around school today."  
  
For a minute Kitty was a little puzzled, but then the light dawned. "Oh yeah! I heard the _weirdest_ thing. that Scott actually asked Rogue to the ball!"  
  
"He did," said Kurt. "And."  
  
"HE DID WHAT?!"  
  
The three turned to see Jean standing in the doorway, her fists clenched and several objects hovering around her. "Scott asked ROGUE to the ball?" she said incredulously. "ROGUE? He never even asked ME!"  
  
"Uh... Jean? You're ummm." Kitty backed away nervously.  
  
Jean's eyes flicked to the side and she noticed the things floating around her. Drawing in a deep breath she controlled her telekinetic power and carefully lowered them to their rightful places. A small part of her felt embarrassed by her outburst, but the rage that had filled her once she overheard Kitty and Kurt had just burst out before she could control it. The fury still filled her, fed by fierce jealousy as one thought ran around and around in her mind: Scott had asked Rogue to the ball, not Jean. Scott had asked Rogue...  
  
"Are you okay?" Evan asked and Jean blinked. Shaking her head, she managed a tight smile. "I'm perfectly fine," she said stiffly and walked out of the room with her head held high.  
  
The three younger mutants looked at each other. "Think we should warn Scott?" Kurt asked finally breaking the silence.  
  
"Warn me about what?" Scott asked from the doorway. He smiled at them, but even with the ruby glasses covering his eyes they could tell that the smile was forced - much like Jean's had been seconds earlier. "Are the New Mutants planning some big joke I should know about?"  
  
"Er..." Kitty hesitated. "It's just... well... Jean found out that you... ummm... asked Rogue to... the..."  
  
Scott's expression changed to one of utter horror. "Oh... &^$%!"  
  
"Language, language, Summers," Erik chided, pushing past him. "Aren't you supposed to be the responsible one, setting an example for the younger members of your team?" he picked up a discarded newspaper from the table and smirked as he sat down.  
  
"YOU!" Scott felt his eyes burn. An ominous red glow shone from behind his glasses as he advanced on Erik, his whole body tense. "This is all YOUR fault!"  
  
Erik dropped the paper and stood up, his expression harsh and cold. "My fault? You're the one who stuck both his feet so spectacularly in his mouth! I had _nothing_ to do with it!"  
  
"Shut UP! Everything was fine before you came here! But now you're tearing everything apart. I'll bet you haven't even lost your memories! This is all part of some plot!"  
  
"Oh, sure..." Erik crossed his arms and shot Scott a disgusted look. "I turned myself into a teenager and voluntarily went back to high school so that I could undermine the X-Men... Honestly, Summers... you can be very stupid when you're acting this irrational."  
  
"I am going to wipe that smirk of your face!" Scott reached up for his glasses.  
  
"SCOTT!" Evan, Kurt and Kitty dog-piled him, wrestling him to the floor. "NO!"  
  
"This is, like, totally wrong," Kitty said, sitting on Scott's left arm. "I mean, I know you're mad, but I really don't think you can blame Erik."  
  
"Yeah, man," Evan gripped Scott's right arm. "I know he's a pain in the butt and he might go mega-evil on us at any moment, but you gotta face facts. you're the one who didn't ask Jean out first."  
  
"And I heard what you said to Rogue," said Kurt, perching on Scott's chest. "It's not surprising that she got a bit mad."  
  
"And that's the biggest understatement I've heard for a while."  
  
"Erik," Kitty looked up. "Can you NOT be so aggravating? Like, it's not helping, you know."  
  
***  
  
Wanda closed the front door to the Brotherhood house with a bang and immediately went up to her room, ignoring Todd's greeting. She had just laid her hand on the door handle when Mystique appeared beside her. The older woman glared at the girl, her yellow eyes glinting.  
  
"Just what do you think you're doing, associating with the enemy?" she demanded.  
  
Wanda stared coldly at her. "If you're talking about me and Rogue, then I'm not doing anything differently from what you're doing."  
  
Mystique frowned. "My dealings with Rogue are none of your business," she snapped. "But you should stay away from her," she said turning away.  
  
"Why?" Wanda yelled. But she was talking to empty air because Mystique had already morphed into a bird and flown out of the window. "Rgh!" Wanda stomped into her room and slammed the door shut. She threw herself on her bed and stared at the ceiling. "If she hadn't promised me my revenge I wouldn't stay here," she said to herself.  
  
Todd winced when Wanda's door slammed. "I wonder what Misty said to her, yo," he said to Fred who was coming out of the kitchen carrying a sandwich piled with everything.  
  
Fred shrugged and plunked himself down on the middle of the sofa, which bent under his weight. "Who knows, who cares," he took a bite out of the sandwich. "Anything good on TV?" he asked, spraying bits of food from his mouth.  
  
"Yuck," Pietro arrived downstairs in time to avoid a piece of masticated beetroot. "You mind not sharing your food?"  
  
"Hey, hey!" Todd hopped up to Pietro. "What's the deal with your sis and the boss lady? You know?"  
  
Pietro shrugged. "Not really, but I bet it has something to do with Rogue," he grimaced. "Wanda's awfully friendly with her."  
  
"Did you hear the stories about Rogue today?" Fred asked. "What's the deal there?"  
  
"Yeah," Todd snickered. "Weird. she's not someone you can get close to. if you know what I mean, but suddenly she's Miss Popularity."  
  
"I really don't give a damn about Rogue," snapped Pietro. "I've got other issues and."  
  
There was a sharp knock on the front door and they all paused.  
  
"Who could that be." Todd started to ask, but Pietro answered the question by zooming to the door and throwing it open, revealing the person outside, her hand poised to knock again.  
  
"Rogue?" Pietro gawked at the girl. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Ah came to see Wanda," said Rogue walking past him. "Shut ya mouth. Speedy, you look like a fish standing there."  
  
Pietro recovered his wits and zapped in front of her, blocking her path. "Now look here, Stripes," he said in his most arrogant tone. "We didn't invite you in and."  
  
"WANDA!" Rogue yelled at the top of her voice. "Tell your brother to stop being such a jerk!"  
  
Wanda's door opened abruptly and the shorthaired brunette appeared at the top of the stairs. "Rogue?" she murmured and then smiled. "He was born a jerk. Come on up." "B-but." Pietro started to object, but a fiery glare from Wanda made him stop. He scowled and moved out of Rogue's way, crossing his arms and muttering under his breath.  
  
"Why are you here?" asked Wanda once Rogue was in her room.  
  
Rogue sighed and plunked herself down on the bed. "Ah. Ah didn't really feel like going back to the mansion just yet," she confessed. She eyed Wanda. "Ah guess you've heard the rumours going around school?"  
  
"I don't listen to gossip," Wanda said flatly, sitting down in the chair by her desk. "But there was some weird talk about you." she admitted. She shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me."  
  
"Yeah, well that's why Ah thought of coming here," said Rogue. "They'll all wanna talk about it at the mansion, Ah'll NEVER hear the end of it and plus Ah'm still too mad at Scott AND Erik right now."  
  
There was a lengthy silence. Wanda fiddled with the ends of her shirt and Rogue stared moodily at the floor. Then Rogue looked up. "So. are you going to the ball?"  
  
Wanda's eyes widened. "Me?" she asked incredulously. "Are you nuts? Why would I want to go to that stupid thing?" she shook her head. "I'm not very good with crowds and that just seems like the worst kind of crowd to be in."  
  
"Ah know," Rogue sighed. "Ah wish Ah didn't have to go. Ah'm not good with crowds either. for obvious reasons."  
  
Curiosity overcame Wanda's usual indifference. "So what made you agree to go?"  
  
"Kitty," Rogue said with an even heavier sigh. "You really have to watch out around her or you find yourself agreeing to something that you never intended to agree to. Ah swear it's some mutant power. like her ability to talk at super-speed."  
  
Despite herself, Wanda laughed. "I thought that was Pietro's power!"  
  
"Kitty comes a very close second! Anyway." said Rogue. "Ah wound up asking Erik to the ball - God, was that EVER embarrassing! - so Ah'm going," she shrugged. "It might be okay. The last school dance was invaded by weirdo monsters from some parallel dimension - that was entertaining!" she frowned. "Although Ah think the entertainment is gonna be me this time and Ah ain't looking forward to that."  
  
"Maybe I should go," Wanda mused. "It'd be interesting to watch a real-life soap opera."  
  
Rogue looked sharply at her new friend. Was Wanda teasing her? "Humph," she said. "Don't get your hopes up."  
  
There was another long silence that was once again broken by Rogue. "So how're you getting on here?" she asked. "This place has. umm. changed a bit since Ah lived here."  
  
"It's okay," Wanda said. "Much better than my last place of residence. at least here I'm not placed in a strait-jacket and poked and prodded all the time. Apart from my annoying brother, the boys are okay," she wondered whether to tell Rogue about Mystique, but after a brief internal struggle she decided to keep quiet. Rogue would probably feel obligated to tell the rest of the X-Men, plus it would undoubtedly be hurtful to find out that your friend was really your enemy. Wanda frowned slightly, perhaps she could drop some hints. no, subtlety wasn't really her strong point.  
  
"Earth to Wanda!" Rogue's voice broke in on Wanda's musings.  
  
"Huh? Oh," Wanda turned her attention back to the other girl. "I was thinking about something."  
  
"Yeah, Ah could see that!" Rogue smirked. "Ah was asking how you were getting along with Tabitha."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Tabby. Boom-Boom. blond girl who makes little bombs?"  
  
"Oh, her," murmured Wanda. "She moved out when I moved in."  
  
"Really?' Rogue's brow wrinkled. "That's odd. she didn't come back to the mansion. Ah wonder if she moved back to her parents'. although Kurt said that she and her Daddy weren't getting along very well."  
  
"Maybe she did," Wanda said disinterestedly.  
  
Rogue saw that this topic was clearly not going to go any further and dropped it after making a mental note to tell the Professor about Tabby's absence. Instead she stretched and looked out of the window at the darkening sky. "Hey, want to grab a bite to eat and then go down to the park? Ah've decided that Ah'm gonna try one more time to catch the kidnapper."  
  
"Why not," said Wanda, standing up. "It's not as if I have anything better to do," she opened her closet and pulled out her long trench coat. "Is Erik coming?"  
  
Rogue wrinkled her nose. "Ah don't know and Ah don't care," she said defiantly.  
  
***  
  
Dinner at the X-Mansion was slightly awkward that evening. Jean was Ignoring Scott. She was doing a magnificent job of it too. If they gave out Oscars for Ignoring People, then Jean would have been a shoe-in. Unfortunately, the whole effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that Scott was so busy glaring murderously at Erik, he didn't actually notice. Scott had been spending most of the meal attempting to manifest some sort of psychic ability and strike Erik down where he sat. So far, all he'd managed to do was give himself a headache, strain his eyes by trying to fire THROUGH his glasses, and scare the people sitting on either side of him into total silence. If looks could kill, (although actually, in Scott's case, they could. But never mind.) Erik would have been a small pile of smoking ash before he had even finished the first course.  
  
In actual fact, Erik was so engrossed with consuming his dinner as quickly as possible that he missed the entire Jean and Scott show. This fact was so amusing the rest of the diners, they were almost disappointed when he finished and obliviously began to clear his plate away.  
  
"Thanks. Going now. Back later." He headed for the kitchen.  
  
"Hot date?" Kurt asked him mischievously.  
  
Erik, Jean and Scott speared him with fiery glares. Kurt clutched at his chest and feigned an elaborate death scene. "Ah! I am struck! Cold, dark death awaits me! Kitty! Evan! Swear that you will carry on my legacy and bring joy, love and the Fuzzy Way to all! And thus, without even a kiss, I die!" He collapsed theatrically under the table. There was a round of applause from the rest of the audience, including Erik and Professor Xavier.  
  
"So where ARE you going?" Scott demanded as Erik headed for the front door.  
  
"Out," Erik's lips twitched briefly, before he sternly controlled them.  
  
"And you'll be back when?"  
  
"Later."  
  
Kitty, Amara, Jubilee and Rahne broke into giggles.  
  
Kurt popped his head up from under the table. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" He yelled happily.  
  
Please remember the curfew this time Erik, Xavier projected to the young man, who was already heading for the gates.  
  
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Erik formed the response in his head and felt Xavier sigh mentally before he disengaged.  
  
"I'm going out too," Scott stood up decisively. "See ya."  
  
He headed out for his car.  
  
"Quick!" Kurt and Evan sprinted to the window to watch as Scott got into his convertible, fished out his keys, and paused.  
  
His car keys had been somehow twisted into an artful Moebius spiral.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"  
  
"Yes!" Kurt rejoiced. "I TOLD you he wouldn't go for the car itself. He's more subtle."  
  
"No!" Evan moaned. "Aw man!"  
  
"Aw yes. Pay up!"  
  
Evan dug around in his pockets. "You're beginning to scare me with how well you can tell what he's going to do," he grouched.  
  
Kurt just grinned at him.  
  
Storm sighed and turned her attention back to the table to see Amara, Jubilee and Rahne suddenly cease their conversation and look innocent.  
  
*Oh no. * Rahne looked across the table and nodded to Roberto, Bobby and Jamie. Storm sighed again. This time Professor Xavier joined her.  
  
It was going to be another long night.  
  
***  
  
"This'll do," said Rogue, hopping onto a low, broad branch of a tree that stood close to the main path of Bayville Park. "We can see quite a lot and are still concealed."  
  
"Mmm," Wanda looked around. "What's that big black grate over there?" she pointed.  
  
"Uh. Ah think it's the entrance to an old sewer system," Rogue said vaguely. "Not sure though."  
  
"Underground huh?" Wanda murmured.  
  
"THERE you are!" A familiar voice hailed them. Rogue made a face as Erik ran up to the two girls. He glared at her. "Where have you been? I had to eat dinner surrounded by a thousand snickering faces and Scott bloody Summers!"  
  
"Scott huh?" Rogue smirked. "So you've fought with him, had detention with him, and now spent dinner with him."  
  
"Sounds like you two are really bonding," Wanda grinned.  
  
Erik glared at the girls. "I hate BOTH of you!" He stated.  
  
"Good!" They responded in unison.  
  
Erik sighed. "What time is it?"  
  
"You have a watch," Rogue pointed out.  
  
"Yes, and if I wanted to know which way due North was, I would find it useful," Erik said.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I overused my magnetic powers while wearing it," he said sheepishly. "It screws the whole circuitry."  
  
Rogue blinked. "Aw hell." She checked her watch and groaned. " According to MY watch it's 00:00, blink blink blink. Great. There's 10 bucks I won't see again. Wanda?"  
  
"I don't have a watch," Wanda said, shrugging. "Never needed it."  
  
"Swell," Rogue sighed. "We'll just have to guess."  
  
"We'll have to guess low," Erik informed her. "The Professor reminded me to be home by curfew tonight. I think he's going to check up, and he'll probably ask us some pretty pointed questions if we're in late. Not to mention the reactions from everyone else." He shuddered.  
  
"What WERE the reactions from everyone else?" Wanda asked curiously.  
  
Erik blinked. "Oddly enough, nearly everyone was... positive. Evan and Kurt have even offered to show me a place I can rent a tux for the dance tomorrow."  
  
Rogue winced at the thought of what Evan and Kurt could do when they were in a mischevious mood.  
  
"Well, if we're on a time limit, maybe we should just do a really thorough sweep of the park?" Wanda suggested.  
  
"That sounds reasonable," Erik agreed.  
  
Wanda laughed harshly. "I think that's the first time anyone's ever called me _reasonable_."  
  
The trio turned to begin their pass through of the park. The sun finished setting behind them, and the lights began to flicker on. Rogue took one step and felt something cold, hard and _strong_ wrap around one ankle.  
  
"Wha..? AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" She couldn't help herself screaming as she was pulled off her feet and swung into the air.  
  
"ROGUE!" Erik and Wanda both took one step forward to help her, and then jumped aside as metal vines lashed out of the sewer opening and attempted to ensnare them. There was a sickening snap, and Erik's body flew through the air as he was lashed by one of the tentacles.  
  
"GET OFF ME!" Wanda screamed as they wrapped around her. She couldn't move. She couldn't MOVE! Memories of the institution she'd spent most of her childhood in, and the dreaded straightjacket, filled her mind. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Around her, the trees began to warp in strange ways. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" She chanted it over and over again, unable to move her arms or fire hex bolts. "LET ME GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"  
  
Trapped in her own private hell, she collapsed to her knees.  
  
Rogue too was having problems. The vines which had twined themselves around her legs had taken her on a wild ride through the air, like some kind of rollercoaster from hell, her joints aching from the sudden snap changes in direction and her head reeling as the world turned upside down and sideways. She closed her eyes and tried to at least control her stomach. It wasn't that she didn't want to be sick, but that she was afraid of where it would go if she did.  
  
Down on the ground, Erik moaned and rolled over onto his back, then gently ran a hand down the burning line of fire across his chest. Bringing his hand away he was relieved to see there wasn't any blood, but a sudden pain in his side made him wonder if he might have fractured a rib. Breathing shallowly, he sat up, only to see more tentacles arrowing towards him. With a snarl he lashed out with his powers, and they were magnetically "knocked" away from him. Looking around he saw Rogue being twirled around like a doll.  
  
"Rogue..." he coughed and tried again. "Rogue! ROGUE! Magnetic powers! REMEMBER YOUR POWERS!"  
  
Above him, Rogue could barely hear through the ringing in her ears, but she caught the mention of powers. Groggily, she tried to use her magnetic powers to tear apart the tentacles binding her legs, but couldn't keep a grip on her abilities long enough to loosen them. She wasn't strong enough to break the tentacles by flying, and she couldn't fire bolts... Her mind spun and she tried to grasp on to a half-forgotten memory. It wasn't one of hers, but it was... there! Jean could form a force shield with her telekinesis, and Rogue had her memories of doing so. Therefore if she concentrated on herself...  
  
Rogue screamed as the tentacles snapped her straight up into the air. Flinging her hands out either side, she concentrated as hard as she could on pushing everything away from her. The vines were ripped apart as a magnetic shield tore them away and formed a bubble around her. Unfortunately, the momentum from the swinging flung her, shield and all, high into the air and she arced away from the park. With a mighty effort, she focused her will, banished the shield and managed to hover in mid-air, where she promptly threw up everything she'd had to eat that afternoon.  
  
Below and further away, Erik battled to keep the tentacles from striking him. Denied Rogue, the vines which had held her now lashed out at him. Gritting his teeth, he formed a magnetic barrier not unlike the one Rogue had just created. "WANDA!" He yelled. "Are you alright?"  
  
Wanda was now screaming incoherently, vines binding her completely from shoulder to knees. Once she was immobilised, they began to draw her into the sewer opening.  
  
"No! Wanda!" Erik gasped as a new wave of tentacles came in. Too fast, too many!  
  
Suddenly the tentacles began to loop and spiral off in all directions. Rogue landed beside him in what was more of a half-fall than a true landing and braced herself against his shoulder.  
  
"Ah'll keep them off, you get Wanda." She hissed.  
  
Freed from the pressure of fighting the vines, Erik bent all of his concentration on the now nearly-cocooned Scarlet Witch. Her bindings literally ripped apart, spraying metal fragments and fibres in all directions. Suddenly freed, Wanda began to fire wildly in all directions, still screaming.  
  
With the tide of power now turned, the tentacles retracted, disappearing back down into the darkness. However, Wanda still continued to scream and blast everything in sight, lost in her tormented memories.  
  
"She's gone crazy!" Erik yelled.  
  
"She didn't have that far to go," Rogue snapped. "Dammit!" She removed a glove.  
  
Erik looked at her, "You're not seriously going to..."  
  
"You got any better ideas?!" Rogue snarled. "You think I WANT to do this?"  
  
Erik nodded resignedly. "I'll shield you. Go."  
  
Rogue ran slowly over to Wanda, dodging the odd blast as best she could. The ground around her began to melt.  
  
"Ah'm sorry Wanda," she said. "Ah really am."  
  
Reaching out, she touched the Scarlet Witch's face.  
  
Memories flooded into her, and she couldn't help but join Wanda in screaming as they flowed into her body. The cells, the straightjackets, the punishments, the dark places... she lived them all through Wanda's memories. The pain, the fear, and the hatred. Oh the hatred. It burned through her, like the power. Fiery, untamed, burning burning burning...  
  
Erik watched in fear as Wanda collapsed and Rogue began to claw at her own face. St Elmos fire flickered all over her body and her hair stood on end. Her eyes were drowning - turned completely pitch black. She fell to her knees and he rushed forward.  
  
"Rogue?"  
  
She surged to her feet and punched him as hard as she could in the jaw (fortunately with her still-gloved hand). Erik slammed to the ground and stared up at her as she loomed over him, tears pouring down her face.  
  
"How could you DO that to me?" She screamed.  
  
"Rogue," Erik was lost for words.  
  
"Do you know what they did to me in there? Do you? DO YOU? I TRUSTED YOU! I LOVED YOU! AND YOU BETRAYED ME!" Rogue's eyes were glowing and the wind whipped around her. Reality began to *twist*.  
  
"ROGUE!" Erik yelled. "Rogue, listen to me! Whatever I did, I'm sorry!"  
  
"SORRY? Sorry doesn't give me back my life!" Rogue screeched.  
  
Erik took a deep shuddering breath. "Rogue, please..."  
  
"You're a MONSTER!" She raised her hands, now glowing with power.  
  
"Am I?" Erik asked her softly.  
  
"What?" Rogue stared at him in confusion.  
  
"Am I a monster?" He asked her quietly. "I don't know." He held out a hand towards her bare hand. "Why don't you tell me?"  
  
She stared at it. The anger slowly drained out of her face. She reached out her gloved hand and gently clasped his hand, then released it. "No. Ah don't need to. Ah know who you are. You're Erik. That's good enough for me."  
  
Erik looked almost disappointed. "I want you to be able to trust me." He said quietly.  
  
"Ah do. That's why Ah don't need to do that." Rogue said. "Ah'm sorry."  
  
"It sounds like _I'm_ the one who should be sorry." Erik said despondently, staring at Wanda's limp form.  
  
"You probably should be. But Ah'm not the one you should be apologising to. And Wanda doesn't appear to be in any condition to hear it now." Rogue shuddered. "We should probably get out of here before that, whatever it was, comes back." She put on her other glove and helped Erik to his feet.  
  
"What should we do with Wanda?"  
  
"You should help her up," Wanda growled quietly as she opened her eyes. "What are you two blabbering away about?"  
  
"It's... a long story," Rogue sighed.  
  
"Then you can tell me later," Wanda sat up. "My head is killing me and my bruises have bruises. Let's get out of here."  
  
They helped the girl up and slowly headed back to the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House.  
  
"Wanda, Ah..."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Wanda snapped. "You got those things off me. That's all I care about." She shot Rogue a look. "But I'm not going to thank you."  
  
Rogue looked at her for a long moment. "Fine." She said finally. "Because you're very definitely not welcome."  
  
The two girls exchanged a long stare, then burst into giggles.  
  
"Women," Erik said in exasperation, then had to dodge two sharp elbow jabs. "Not the ribs! Not the ribs!"  
  
"Ow," Rogue winced as the ground moved too quickly. "Well, it's official. Today sucked."  
  
"And we haven't even got back home yet," Erik said. "I hate to think what the Professor's gonna say about this."  
  
Rogue groaned loudly.  
  
*** to be continued 


	5. Chapter Four: Friday

Chapter Four: Friday Preparation, Kisses and confrontations  
  
Disclaimer: Don't owe them, wish we did  
  
Authors' note: Sorry for the delay! We've been hard hit by the holiday season and a variety of other things! Thanks for your patience! - Jaelle & Orla  
  
***  
  
Erik closed his eyes as he stretched and entered the dining room.  
  
"Morning everyone." He opened his eyes just in time to be speared with glares from the assembled mutants, who left him in absolutely no doubt as to whom they held responsible for the events of the past few days.  
  
"Um, nice weather we're having?"  
  
Scott actually snarled at him before turning back to his breakfast. Erik felt a little guilty. The X-Men's team leader hadn't taken the SECOND secret bombshell that Rogue had dropped in two days very well. The news that she and Erik had been patrolling the local parks, with WANDA of all people, in search of a kidnapper, had gone down much akin to a lead balloon. His subsequent outburst had been awesome to behold, and Rogue's cool comment that "You're gonna have awful blood pressure later in life if ya don't calm down" hadn't really helped the situation.  
  
Erik sighed as he took his seat, and then narrowed his eyes as he watched Scott snag the last few pieces of toast, and shoot him a smirk. His sympathy wasn't limitless, and after all - Scott needed to get used to adjusting swiftly to changed circumstances if he was going to be able to continue to lead the X-Men. Erik contemplated a couple of possible revenge situations and grinned to himself.  
  
Looking up from his grin, he met the cool and knowing eyes of Professor Xavier, and winced at the memory of the scolding he and Rogue had received from him after he'd dismissed the others and Wolverine and Beast had been sent out to check the sewers. He squirmed slightly in his chair and dropped his eyes to his plate.  
  
"Hey, better eat up quickly, you don't want to be late to school today!" Kurt reminded him, snagging some pancakes and dumping them on Erik's plate.  
  
"Danke," Erik responded. Kurt grinned at him and rattled off a quick sentence in German. Erik choked on his first mouthful of food and had to be pounded repeatedly on the back before he was able to breathe properly.  
  
"What did you say to him?" Evan demanded.  
  
"It wouldn't translate well," Kurt replied loftily, and ported off to grab his schoolbag, smirking slightly at Erik's response to his carefully worded suggestion that he get plenty of food and rest for _tonight's_ activities.  
  
*That little furball, * Erik thought as he hastily shovelled food into his mouth. *Just wait until he's alone with HIS girlfriend.* Another thought impinged on his consciousness as he looked around the table. "Mere'th Ogue?"  
  
Professor Xavier suppressed a smile at the sight of Rahne and Amara berating the Master of Magnetism for talking with his mouth full. Off to one side, unseen, Kitty smirked.  
  
***  
  
Rogue opened her eyes, blinked, stretched and then groaned faintly as her mind unfogged and memory kicked in. Briefly she contemplated pulling a sickie and diving back underneath the covers, but she had a strong suspicion that no one would believe her.  
  
"Oh well..." she yawned and rolled over, pushing her hair our of her eyes. "At least Ah must be early... the alarm hasn't gone off and it's... YEEEARGH!" she sat bolt upright and grabbed her alarm clock. "Seven fifty- five????"  
  
Galvanised into action by pure panic, Rogue jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. She washed, put on her make-up and did her hair in record time before scrambling into her underclothes and flinging open the door to her closet.  
  
"Huh?" Rogue blinked.  
  
The closet was completely empty with the exception of a pair of jeans and an off-the-shoulder top. Rogue rubbed her eyes and wondered if she was dreaming or hallucinating. Surely her closet was full last night? Although she couldn't actually remember opening it. she had been so tired and dirty, smarting from the scolding and desperate for a warm shower and bed.  
  
"But who's gonna take MAH clothes?" Rogue wailed aloud. "Why?" she yanked open her drawers - empty - and rifled through Kitty's closet for good measure. "Why?" she peered under the bed, looked under and behind the desk and in every possible place she could think of. "Why, why, why, WHY?"  
  
"Rogue?" there was a knock at the door and Jean's voice filtered through. "Are you okay? What's all the noise about?"  
  
Rogue swore under her breath. Just like Miss Prissy Perfect Grey to stick her nose in where it wasn't wanted. She wrenched open the door and glared at the tall redhead. "Mah clothes have been stolen," she snapped. "Ah just a little upset, is that okay with you?"  
  
Jean blinked in surprise. "Stolen? But how...?"  
  
"Ah DON'T KNOW!" Rogue yelled in frustration. "D'ya think Ah'd be turning the room upside down if Ah did?"  
  
"Well," Jean checked her watch. "Unless you want to be tardy we can't do anything about it now..." she looked at Rogue and cleared her throat, blushing faintly and moving ever-so-slightly back. "Umm... so you don't have anything to wear...?"  
  
Rogue looked at in her in puzzlement. "Why are ya..." she looked down and realised that she was still only wearing her underwear. "Ack!"  
  
"Rogue, it's time to go," Erik suddenly rounded the corner. "Did you overslee..."  
  
Both girls shrieked. Jean made to push Rogue back in the room, checked herself and instead made shooing motions. Which weren't required because Rogue bolted into her room, slamming the door shut at a speed defying Quicksilver's. Erik stood, looking half puzzled and half embarrassed, his face turning a lovely shade of red. "Ummm..."  
  
"I suggest you leave," Jean said. "_Before_ she gets back out."  
  
"Good plan," said Erik quickly and hurried away, almost crashing into the wall in his haste.  
  
Rogue came out a minute later in the only outfit she had left, her pale face flushed and eyes glittering with anger. "He's gone?"  
  
Jean nodded. "Never saw someone run so fast," she confided and Rogue cracked a grin, temporarily united with her nemesis.  
  
"Come on," said Jean. "We better move if we're going to catch the bus."  
  
Rogue shot her a curious look. "You're not going with Scott?"  
  
Jean stiffened. "No. I'm not," she pressed her lips together in a thin line. Out of the corner of her eye she glanced at Rogue, wondering how the Goth girl was feeling about being the centre of the rumours at school. Jean, an honest soul, also had to admit that she was feeling just a bit jealous - which didn't help her temper because she knew it was silly to be jealous of Rogue - and couldn't help wondering if Rogue's crush on Scott was actually making an impact on the young man. Quickly she changed the subject. "So do you have any idea who stole your clothes?"  
  
"No," Rogue growled. "But Ah bet the New Mutants had something to do with it. Ah just can't figure WHY they'd do it!"  
  
"Do what?" Kitty bounced out of the dining room as they passed. "Hey Rogue, here's a muffin, I was just coming to see if you were up."  
  
"Thanks," Rogue took the muffin and then paused, looking suspiciously at Kitty. "Mah alarm didn't go off."  
  
"Oh?" Kitty shrugged. "Like, maybe you forgot to set it after your little adventure last night!" she winked.  
  
Rogue scowled. "Don't remind me... yesterday sucked on toast, today better be an improvement..."  
  
"How couldn't it be?" Kitty beamed. "It's the ball tonight! Yeah!"  
  
Rogue's eyes widened. "&*@$!" she exclaimed. "If Ah don't get mah clothes back before tonight Ah'm gonna have nothing to wear!"  
  
"Eh?" Kitty looked confused. "What do you mean?"  
  
Jean quickly filled Kitty in on the saga and the younger girl looked sympathetically at her roommate. "Like, that's awful, but don't worry..." she giggled. "You can always borrow something of mine."  
  
"Or mine," Jean offered.  
  
Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh... Ah'm so sure Ah could fit YOUR clothes!" she said and the other two looked indignant.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Kitty asked. "Are you saying that I'm..."  
  
"Smaller than me and Jean's taller," said Rogue. "Either Ah wouldn't be able to breath or Ah'd be wearing a dress that looked like a sack... not a good look!"  
  
"Hmmm... you have a point," Jean said as they reached the bus stop. She clicked her fingers. "I know! The ball doesn't start until seven... that gives us plenty of time to go shopping!"  
  
Rogue's expression was dubious. "Shopping?"  
  
"I wonder what did happen to your clothes," Jean mused as they climbed on the bus.  
  
Behind them, Kitty smirked slightly.  
  
***  
  
Scott entered his first class of the day and sighed inwardly as two of his classmates that were there grinned knowingly at him before returning to their conversation. "Great, just great," he muttered to himself, taking his usual seat by the window. Clearly it had been too much to hope that some other rumour would have replaced yesterdays already.  
  
He counted himself lucky that neither Rogue or Erik were in this class or the next, he couldn't have stood that so early in the morning. However, Jean was and usually she would have come to class with him, but this morning she had disappeared directly after breakfast and not come down to the car. Scott smiled slightly. Jean being angry with him was the one bright spot in this whole mess. After all, she wouldn't be mad about him asking Rogue to the ball if she didn't feel something for him, right? But why she had accepted Duncan's invitation before waiting for Scott to ask was confusing... Scott shook his head. Women were peculiar sometimes.  
  
"Um, Scott?"  
  
He looked up to see Taryn standing in front of his desk, a smile hovering on her lips. "Uh, good morning Taryn, what can I do for you?"  
  
"Well," she looked coy. "I was hoping to do something for you, Scott..." she twined a strand of dark hair around one finger. "I couldn't help hearing that... well, I understand that you don't have a date to the ball aaaaand it happens that I don't have a date for the ball either... Soooo, I thought that you and I could go together."  
  
Scott gulped. "Umm... I'm really sorry, Taryn, but I... er... already have a date for the ball."  
  
Taryn's coy expression vanished and was replaced by pure astonishment. "She changed her mind?" she asked incredulously.  
  
"Huh? Who?"  
  
"That little Goth, Rogue!"  
  
"Oh no, no..." Scott shook his head. "No, I'm going with... uh... with Risty."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Risty Wilde. You know... purple hair..."  
  
"RISTY??" Taryn's voice rose up to a high pitch and Scott winced.  
  
There was a loud crash behind him and he glanced round and paled. Jean was standing there, staring at him, her books at her feet.  
  
"You're going with Risty?"  
  
***  
  
Erik towelled the tips of his hair, his face set in thoughtful contemplation.  
  
Today had been a series of ups and downs. Actually, that pretty much described the whole week so far, but today was certainly taking the biscuit. First the unpleasantness at the breakfast table, then... his face heated slightly, the, ah, Rogue thing. He quickly tried to think about something else. Oh yes, then an unpleasant run in with Risty, who had told him to be very careful about what he was doing tonight. He REALLY didn't understand that girl, and wasn't sure if he wanted to. Then the pleasure of acing the science test that morning, followed by a depressing history class on concentration camps in World War II, which had put him into a VERY bad mood for some reason.  
  
Let's see, after that Evan and Kurt had dragged him aside during morning break and given him tips for the dance, including clueing him in on some dances he'd never even heard of. He still wasn't entirely sure what a Macarena was, and he was fairly certain the Ketchup Song was some sort of attempt at a practical joke, but the two boys had cheered him up immensely, and given him the crucial information on the location of a place to rent a tuxedo at a reasonable price for this evening.  
  
Then PE.  
  
Oh yes, PE. Well, it hadn't been _awful_, despite all of Scott Summers' best efforts. But for some reason their class was combined with one of the junior classes, so Lance Alvers and Pietro Maximoff were also both present. This wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for the fact that Pietro had been on one team for basketball, and Eric on the other and EVERYONE KEPT MIXING THEM UP! Both boys had copped yells for not passing to the right people, followed by, "Oh sorry. I thought you were the other one." For the love of heaven, they didn't look THAT much alike. Pietro had sulked about it terribly before they were dismissed to jog five laps as a cool down.  
  
Erik sighed. Three periods down, three to go. Oh well, at least he had lunch first. With Rogue. Uh oh.  
  
From a locker in the next row, Duncan Matthews slyly watched Scott Summers glaring at Erik as he finished dressing, and thought about the situation. Summers had been a pain in his ass from day one, always sniffing around Jean, being her "good friend". Interfering in Duncan's fun, being 'Mr Perfect'. Not to mention that he was a goody-good in class too, always doing well and making Duncan look bad. But this last week Summers had been off-balance, and it was all due to the new guy. Duncan hadn't particularly liked Erik after their first introduction, but the battles between him and Scott had been the highlight of Duncan's week. Duncan made up his mind. He didn't like the new guy, but he absolutely HATED Scott Summers. Tugging his t-shirt on, he made his way over to Erik, and clapped his hand down on his back.  
  
"So, I hear you beat out Summers for the Goth Girl, huh Erik?"  
  
Erik swayed forward from the impact and spun around, only narrowly resisting the instant urge to defend himself. While he tried to tell his body that he really DIDN'T need all that adrenalin right now, he didn't notice the utter silence in the locker room, until he looked up at Duncan's grinning face.  
  
"Uh, yeah." He said finally, his eyes sliding around the room to read the expressions on the faces turned towards him. Lance and Pietro were restraining sniggers, and Scott looked appalled and disgusted. Erik didn't really blame him. "I mean, yes. I am going to the dance tonight with Rogue."  
  
"Way to go man," Duncan lightly punched Erik's arm. Then he winked. "And to the victor go the spoils, hey?"  
  
There was a wave of raucous laughter from Duncan's cronies. Erik blinked, trying to work out what was so funny. Then his face slowly turned a brilliant crimson colour.  
  
"I. I. that is. I. Rogue. she." He stammered, trying frantically to get the words out and viciously wished that Duncan would go away. Preferably to another continent.  
  
"Hey, I know how it is man," Duncan nodded knowingly. "She looks like a real dog, but you know, under all that goop she puts on her face, she could almost be pretty."  
  
Lance's face went blank, Scott looked appalled, Pietro looked vaguely sickened, and Erik didn't know whether he should hit Duncan, flee, or just kill EVERYONE out of sheer embarrassment. He had the vague feeling that the third option might be overkill.  
  
"But it's always the ones like her that are the best once you get them going," Duncan said knowingly.  
  
Pietro suddenly found himself possessed of the gift of foresight. He just KNEW that what happened next was going to be bad.  
  
"Yep," Duncan stood proudly and patted Erik on the shoulder. "You know how it is. Once you get her in the bushes I bet she starts off like a cold fish, but just hang in there buddy and I'm sure she'll give you everything she's got!"  
  
For a brief moment the four mutants in the room shared the same thought of the probable consequences of even attempting what Duncan was suggesting and mentally shuddered. But then his brain caught up with the meaning of the words his ears had just forwarded, and without any further comments Erik swung his fist up and caught Duncan right on his filthy mouth. Snarling slightly, ignoring the pain from his scraped knuckles, he followed it up with another punch, and another and another.  
  
Some of Duncan's friends began to hurry over to their leader, but Scott intercepted them with a waist-high tackle that brought them all down into one big brawling heap. Others looked as though they might join in, until Pietro and Lance took up positions in front of the fight, arms crossed, and eyes glaring. Behind them the battle raged on as Erik, mutant powers forgotten, attempted to BEAT the living daylights out of Duncan, while Scott kept his friends off.  
  
Pietro glanced at Lance. "So, why are we helping out the X-geeks?" He muttered out of the side of his mouth.  
  
Lance glared at a jock that was getting too close. "We're not helping the X- geeks. We're just not helping Duncan Matthews more."  
  
"Oh." Pietro nodded. "That seems fair."  
  
Lance grimaced. "Plus can you imagine what Rogue would do to us if she found out about this, and heard that we DIDN'T pitch in in some way?"  
  
"I think I can handle Rogue," Pietro said with an arrogant expression.  
  
"Okay fine. Can you imagine what Rogue AND YOUR SISTER would do to us if they found out about this, and heard that we didn't help in some way?" Lance said impatiently. "You KNOW girls stick together on this kind of thing."  
  
Pietro went pale.  
  
"Thought that might change your mind," Lance said smugly.  
  
***  
  
"This sort of behaviour is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!" Principal Kelly screamed. "How DARE you fight on school grounds."  
  
"We fell over," Duncan mumbled carefully through swollen lips.  
  
"FELL OVER?!"  
  
Principal Kelly glared at the six boys standing before him. Scott Summers was sporting a wonderful bruise on one cheek, Duncan Matthews looked as though his face had been repeatedly smashed against a wall (which it had), and three other boys had various bruises and black eyes. The only thing Erik Magnus had on his face was an innocent expression.  
  
And nobody was admitting anything.  
  
Principal Kelly seethed. "Very well, as you are all so APPARENTLY CLUMSY that you cannot simply get changed after PE without getting hurt, then for your OWN SAFETY I must INSIST that you all attend Saturday detentions for the next six weeks! Now get out of my office!"  
  
The boys left in a hurry, Duncan leading the way. Erik and Scott started to head off to class, but paused in the corridor awkwardly.  
  
"Thanks for helping me out back there," Erik finally mumbled.  
  
"It's okay," Scott said. "It was totally worth it to see you thump Duncan like that."  
  
They chuckled.  
  
Scott cleared his throat. "Look, Erik. I know we haven't really been getting along lately."  
  
"Mmmm." Erik said cautiously.  
  
"And I still don't like you, nor do you like me." Scott paused again. "But what say we come to a truce? I'll back off and we'll both try to be polite to each other."  
  
"I guess I can do that," Erik said thoughtfully. "Alright then, truce."  
  
They shook hands.  
  
Erik sighed, and then grinned at Scott. "It's probably just as well we've called truce. It's bad enough that we EACH have two DIFFERENT girls mad at us!"  
  
Scott groaned.  
  
***  
  
"Okay, let's get started!" Kitty cried as she, Rogue and Jean entered the store in Bayville Mall that was considered the most hip for party outfits. "This is going to be SO much fun!"  
  
Rogue sighed. It had been another long day and she was not looking forward to this. However, her missing clothes had not reappeared after school - despite the various veiled (and outright) threats she had dropped on the New Mutants - so she was left with no option but to accompany Kitty and Jean to the Mall. To make matters worse Jean was clearly a little tense - she was still outwardly pleasant and her usual nice self, but Rogue suspected that she was angry about Duncan getting into a fight AND that Scott was going to the ball with Risty.  
  
The news about the brawl in the locker room had made the rounds very quickly at school, but Rogue was starting to get used to the outrageous stories and decided that she wasn't going to let herself get upset this time. Although she was a little curious as to why Erik had found it necessary to try and beat Duncan into a pulp - aside from the obvious reason that Duncan was a complete idiot - but Erik wasn't saying and Rogue was too proud to ask.  
  
"How about this one?" Kitty's voice broke into her thoughts. The younger girl waved a dress at Rogue who wrinkled her nose.  
  
"It's powder blue, Ah don't DO powder blue."  
  
"This?" Jean suggested.  
  
Rogue's eyes narrowed. "Strapless? And yellow? No way!"  
  
"Like, how can you refuse THIS one?"  
  
"Easily, Ah'd never be able to move in something that tight and Ah believe the purpose of a ball is to _dance_."  
  
"This?"  
  
"FUSCHIA PINK???"  
  
"I take that's a no, then."  
  
"This one!" Kitty bounced over clutching a black, satiny dress. "It's gorgeous!"  
  
Rogue had perked up a little when she caught a glimpse of the dress, but when Kitty revealed it in all it's glory she scowled again. "Ah'd trip," she said, looking at the length of the skirt. "No."  
  
"Oh," Kitty was momentarily downcast, but she soon brightened. "Well maybe you're right. I'll go and get something else!"  
  
"This one is lovely," said Jean coming up as Kitty scampered off. She handed Rogue a blue and silver affair that looked to be both elegant and sexy. Rogue looked at it and was forced to conclude that it was lovely, but...  
  
"It's not really _me_," she said. Swallowing against the jealousy rising up in her throat, she gave the dress back to Jean. "_You'd_ look good in it though," she said harshly.  
  
Jean blinked and looked at the dress again. "Well I..." she felt flustered. Rogue was right, but Jean already had a dress for the ball and the purpose of this shopping trip was to help Rogue, not herself and... "I'll think about it," she mumbled, putting the dress aside.  
  
Kitty charged back over, her arms full of dresses. "Okay, so... like... you MUST like one of these!"  
  
Rogue sighed. Would this nightmare never end? Wearily she churned out comments as the choices were displayed.  
  
"Lavender - ugh!"  
  
"Too low cut."  
  
"No back."  
  
"_Orange_?"  
  
"Argh!" Kitty let out a cry of frustration. "Rogue! You can't be shy about showing what you've got! This is a BALL! You need to be sexy! You need to be..."  
  
"Covered up," Rogue said flatly. "Ah'm going to be in a crowded room and you KNOW what'll happen if mah bare skin touches someone else's!"  
  
"Oh," Kitty deflated. "Oh yeah..."  
  
"Maybe, this one?" Jean said cautiously.  
  
Rogue looked at Jean's selection and her eyes gleamed. "Now _that's_ more like it!"  
  
"_Finally_!" Kitty sighed. "Okay, now we have to get the shoes..."  
  
Rogue looked vaguely alarmed. "Shoes??"  
  
***  
  
Erik glanced at the clock and sighed. It was just on 7 o'clock, and he'd managed to get to the tux rental place and find something that fitted, back home to the Xavier Institute, through a quick martial arts session, and washed and dressed for the dance just in time. Now he stood in the foyer with the rest of the males who were attending the dance and waited for the girls to make their grand entrance.  
  
"Why does it always take the girls so long to get ready?" Evan complained.  
  
"So that we're paying full attention and can be suitably impressed when they show up," Scott replied.  
  
"Well I for one am paying full attention, but I still wish they'd hurry up a bit," Kurt said forlornly. "I want to go and meet Amanda and be impressed by HER clothes. By the way, how's my hair?"  
  
"It's FINE!" Everyone in the room snapped. Kurt had been asking this question every five minutes for the past _hour_ and they were all getting a little tired of it.  
  
Scott tried to take over as leader again. "Now, does everyone have their tickets for the dinner?"  
  
"Yes," all the guys chorused wearily.  
  
"... daddy," Kurt added under his breath. "We are all going to be GOOD little children tonight."  
  
Erik tried not to laugh as Scott glared suspiciously at Kurt. Kurt smirked at Scott, "Told you, you should have taken German, not French," he said cheerily.  
  
"Did he say something rude?" Scott demanded of Erik.  
  
"Would Kurt do something like that?"  
  
"Yeah right!" Kurt grinned. "If I wanted to insult you, I'd do it in English!"  
  
"Thanks, that's _so_..."  
  
"Ahem."  
  
Kitty posed at the top of the stairs. In a rare change, her hair was loose and the blue silk evening dress she wore made her look sweet, innocent, and cute as a button. Kurt applauded happily and Evan wolf-whistled as she sashayed down to them.  
  
"Man, Lance's eyeballs are going to pop right out of his head when he sees you!" Kurt said. "You look beautiful, Kitty."  
  
"Aww..." Kitty blushed. Then she grinned mischievously. "Jean! It's your turn!"  
  
The guys turned to see Jean now descending the stairs. Scott almost swallowed his tongue as the red satin Chinese-style dress with gold embroidery clung to every one of her many curves.  
  
"Gah, agh... ka..."  
  
Jean ignored Scott's babblings - she was still angry with him - and turned slowly, letting everyone get the full effect of her outfit. "And for our grand finale!"  
  
All eyes went back to the stairs to behold Rogue, blushing so furiously that it could almost be seen underneath all of her makeup. She was wearing an off the shoulder dress that shimmered in the light so that it alternated between black and jade green. Long gloves covered most of her arms and black tights and high heels accentuated her long legs.  
  
"Oh very, very nice indeed Rogue," Kurt nodded in appreciation. "Stunning, wonderful, marvellous!"  
  
"It's pretty cool." Evan said casually. "Don't you think so, Erik?"  
  
Everyone's eyes turned to Erik, but he had apparently been struck dumb, and simply stared at Rogue.  
  
Rogue felt her face grow hotter, and she stomped down the stairs and grabbed Erik's arm. "So are we going or what?"  
  
"Uh, yeah," Scott shook himself. "We're just waiting for..."  
  
"Rogue! Your outfit looks fabulous!" Risty walked in the front door. "This is gonna be such a blast! Shall we go?" She grabbed hold of Scott's arm and tugged him towards the door. "Want to ride with us Rogue?"  
  
"Um, sure." Rogue said.  
  
"Excellent." Risty released Scott and gave him a shove towards the door. "We can sit in the back seat together and talk while the boys drive."  
  
"Uh, okay."  
  
Erik caught the glare that Risty shot him as she snagged Rogue's free arm and dragged her friend off. *Oh boy.*  
  
***  
  
In the kitchen of the Brotherhood house, Wanda glanced at the clock for the fiftieth time. At first she had enjoyed the unusual peace caused by the absence of all the boys, but now...  
  
"No," she said to herself. "I do NOT want to go to the stupid ball!"  
  
Her eyes fell on the ticket on the kitchen table in front of her. Todd had shoved it under her door just after school and hesitantly asked her to go with him. Wanda had eloquently expressed her revulsion at the idea and he had left her alone, but told her to keep the ticket in case she changed her mind. She had snorted and then watched as the others left - Lance going to meet Kitty, Pietro jumping in the car of some bubblehead and her equally silly friends, and Todd and Fred walking off together.  
  
Wanda sighed. She hated to admit it... REALLY hated to admit it, but she was feeling a bit lonely. Irritatingly, she was also curious to see how Rogue was doing.  
  
"Fine!" she snarled to empty air. "I'll go! But only for five minutes! That's IT!"  
  
And with that, she stalked out of the house.  
  
**  
  
Rogue was, for lack of a better word, happy. The dance was turning out to be much more fun than she'd expected. Everyone had been really nice to her all night, and Erik hadn't said anything tactless since the evening began. Although she kind of wished that all of the people that kept coming up to the pair of them and talking about unimportant things would just go away. She knew damn well they were only interested in her because of Erik and all the rumours about them. They were the "hot goss" of the week. But a tiny part of her was actually enjoying her new-found popularity, even if it was dangerous to get to close to people. Still, all of these new-found "friends" would evaporate when the next new thing came along, so it was unlikely to be a problem. *True friends stuck through thick and thin,* she thought, looking over at Risty who was on the other side of the gymnasium. She knew she was lucky to have found Risty, someone who knew, who understood. It was almost like having a sister.  
  
Rogue's eyes fell as the familiar depression fell on her shoulders. *Except that Ah'm lying to her, hiding my real self from her. Some true friend Ah am.*  
  
Erik cleared his throat. "Can I get you some more punch?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, no thanks." Rogue gave him one of her rare smiles. "Ah'm fine for now."  
  
"Enjoying yourself?" Erik asked somewhat desperately.  
  
"You know," she said thoughtfully. "Ah really am."  
  
Erik nearly sighed in relief. The evening had been wonderful. His truce with Scott was still in place, Risty had been unable to get near him for the last couple of hours, Duncan Matthews was actively avoiding him, and Rogue looked beautiful and, for the first time since he'd met her, _happy_. People had wandered up in a fairly steady stream to talk to them, so they didn't feel isolated, and they'd been able to chatter away all evening about nice, safe, _normal_ things that couldn't possibly cause any arguments. Unfortunately, these topics had now mostly run out, and he was beginning to panic about the next topic of conversation. He really didn't know much about the weather.  
  
"Would you like to dance?" He offered, fairly sure that she'd turn him down.  
  
Rogue paused. It had been a long time since she'd last danced with a guy. Not since Cody. Oh, there had been her part in the Dracula musical, but that was all choreographed, safe. Did she dare go out on that crowded dance floor? Oh what the heck.  
  
"Sure, why not," she said recklessly. "It's do or die!"  
  
Raising an eyebrow briefly at her words, Erik carefully guided her onto the dance floor. He leant carefully into her as they danced and inhaled. He'd been correct, she _was_ wearing perfume. It smelled nice. There was a quiet, peaceful silence for a while.  
  
"Erik?"  
  
"Mmm?"  
  
"Not that Ah'm complaining, but why are we waltzing?"  
  
Erik shot a look around him. It was true; they did appear to be the only couple waltzing.  
  
"Isn't this a waltz tune?"  
  
"Well, it is a slow song," Rogue admitted. "But Ah don't think it was designed for the waltz."  
  
"So what do you want me to do? Shuffle from side to side like everyone else?"  
  
Rogue thought about it for a moment. "Nah. This is more interesting. Oooh, go right, Ah want to talk to Risty a moment."  
  
Erik effortlessly turned left.  
  
Rogue glared at him. "How do you steer this damn thing?" She muttered, but without much heat. She glanced at the doorway.  
  
"Expecting someone?" Erik asked, inwardly planning to commit serious bodily harm if it turned out she was waiting for a guy.  
  
"Ah told Wanda she should come along," Rogue said distractedly. "Ah hoped she'd be here by now. It's nearly 11.30."  
  
Erik didn't say anything, but inwardly sighed in relief.  
  
***  
  
When Erik manoeuvred Rogue out on to the dance floor and started waltzing with her, Risty's eyes narrowed. She had never believed Magneto had amnesia, and here was proof. But she still had no idea exactly what he was up to and that was annoying, especially when he was paying so much attention to Rogue. For a brief second 'Risty's' eyes glowed golden as Mystique ruminated on the current situation. After all the work she had put into Rogue, making sure that the girl trusted her and liked her, and preventing Rogue from getting into too many dangerous situations, Mystique was not about to let Magneto take her without a fight.  
  
However, currently Mystique was not having much luck breaking Erik and Rogue apart. She glanced sourly at her date. Scott had spent most of the evening with his eyes on Jean - who was ignoring him pointedly. Normally Mystique would have found the whole soap opera amusing, but right now it was simply frustrating her no end.  
  
There was a rush of wind and Risty turned to see Pietro bolting to a corner of the ballroom, leaving three rather confused girls in the middle of the dance floor. Curious to see what had alarmed the speedy mutant, Risty looked around and spotted the source lingering in the main entrance way.  
  
"What the hell...?"  
  
Within seconds, Risty had dashed across the ballroom and sidled up to Wanda. "And what are you doing here?"  
  
Wanda looked coolly at her. "Rogue suggested that I come," she said. "I wasn't going to, but I decided to have a look... see what it's like..."  
  
Risty gritted her teeth. Here was yet another problem that she had not anticipated happening. She grabbed Wanda's arm. "I want to talk to you, in private,"  
  
Wanda considered refusing, but she didn't want to cause a scene and they were already attracting a couple of curious glances. "Fine," she said flatly. "But let go of my arm!"  
  
Risty smirked triumphantly and the two girls left the gymnasium. Risty led Wanda into a classroom and morphed back into her real form. Folding her arms, Mystique glared at Wanda. "I thought I told you to stay away from Rogue!" she hissed. "She's more dangerous than ANY of the X-Men!"  
  
Wanda's eyes narrowed. "I don't think that's the real reason you want me to keep away," she said. "I think you're jealous that Rogue has thrown you over, Risty!" her fists clenched. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but if you try and interfere with me maybe I'll tell Rogue who her best friend really is!"  
  
Anger flashed in Mystique's yellow eyes, but she controlled herself and simply favoured Wanda with a sly, superior smile. She knew the best way to throw Wanda off track. "You know, I was a little concerned about you, Wanda, hanging out with the X-Men so much, but... I have to admit that I'm impressed that you have managed to deal with your feelings towards him so well."  
  
"What? Who are you talking about?" Wanda asked, confused. "Pietro?"  
  
"No, not Pietro," Mystique's tone was syrupy sweet. "But you've been spending so much time with your father and I thought you loathed him so much that you were prepared to kill him on sight."  
  
"I do hate him, I would never..." Wanda stared at Mystique in horror as her words hit home. Images flashed into her head. All the times spent with Rogue and... "Erik? ERIK?"  
  
She recalled his remarkable similarity to Pietro, his powers, his arrogance, Rogue's words to him after she had absorbed Wanda's memories...  
  
"No, no..."  
  
Objects buckled and lights flicked.  
  
"NO! FATHER!!!!"  
  
Wanda turned on her heel and fled out of the classroom.  
  
***  
  
The music changed to a more up-beat song and Erik led Rogue back to the edge of the dance floor and twirled them both apart in a perfect move.  
  
"Thank you for this dance, dear lady," he said, bowing over Rogue's hand.  
  
Rogue giggled. "Why it was nothin' at all deah suh," she said, her Southern accent becoming suddenly thicker. "Always a pleasuah."  
  
Erik grinned at her. She grinned back. All was right in the world.  
  
"Hey Rogue! Guess what!"  
  
Yet another of the endless line of gossip-gatherers and curiosity seekers came up behind Rogue, eager to be seen talking to the girl of the hour. She began to turn to answer him but, impatient, he reached out a hand and put it on her bare shoulder to grasp her attention more fully.  
  
Both Rogue and her unintended victim gasped and went rigid as his life energy, thoughts and memories began to flow into the young mutant. Stunned by the sudden disaster, Erik froze for a crucial second or two before shoving the boy away and hauling Rogue closer to him. She leant into him, gasping and shuddering as she assimilated the new identity within her.  
  
"Did you _see_ that?"  
  
The whisper was repeated in endless variations all around the room as the assembled teenagers drew away from Rogue and Erik. The whispers became louder and more panicked as rumour and suspicion took hold.  
  
"What did she do to that guy?"  
  
"All he did was touch her!"  
  
"What kind of monster is she?"  
  
Erik stiffened. "Someone call a teacher," he said loudly. "I think this guy's had too much to drink."  
  
"Ian hasn't had anything to drink all night!" An indignant call came back. "What did your freak girlfriend do to him?"  
  
"Ah... Ah didn't do anything." Rogue said weakly.  
  
"Liar! We all saw it."  
  
"Oh you all _saw_ it, did you?" The contempt in Erik's voice could have stripped paint. "What exactly did you see? That he touched her skin and collapsed? And how exactly is that supposed to have happened? Maybe Rogue hit him with her amazing 'psychic powers'? Or maybe she turned around and hit him so quickly that you couldn't see it with her incredible 'super speed'? Or maybe, ha! Or maybe she 'absorbed' his mind? I think you've all been reading too many comic books."  
  
There was an uncertain rumble from the watching crowd. Across the room, Scott and the others were holding their breaths, not wanting to intervene and make things worse.  
  
Erik sneered at the watchers. "Probably the most _likely_ suggestion is that Rogue has some sort of knock-out liquid on her skin to prevent halfwits from manhandling her. Likely isn't it? Happens all the time, right?" His sarcasm had reached all-new highs. "Well, just to reassure you all. Rogue?"  
  
Rogue looked up at him and Erik leant down and kissed her. In reality it was the lightest of kisses, but it looked passionate.  
  
"..." said the various mutants in the room.  
  
"..." said the various non-mutants in the room. And then...  
  
"WOOOOOHOOOOO!!! GO FOR IT ERIK!!!"  
  
The room erupted as waves of applause began to spread. Guys were cheering, girls were applauding, and the X-Men and Brotherhood were flabbergasted.  
  
Erik finally broke the kiss and grinned at the assembled students. "We now return you to your regularly scheduled dance!" He said. "Oh, and someone still needs to get a teacher for the guy on the floor!"  
  
Dragging Rogue away, he moved quickly to the back of the hall.  
  
"Wha... wha...?" Rogue was stunned. She'd been terrified at first, and then nothing had happened, and she'd been so surprised and then everyone had been cheering and she wanted nothing more than to run away.  
  
"Stay with me," Erik muttered. "If you run out of here you'll look guilty." A couple of guys came up to congratulate them and he accepted their words with a cheerful grin. Then he hit an impenetrable wall.  
  
"Ah... Scott, Kurt, Jean, Kitty, Evan... good to see you all here."  
  
"Okay Erik, what the hell did you do?" Scott demanded.  
  
"Me?" Erik was offended. "I helped Rogue out of a situation. I thought that was the X-Men thing to do."  
  
"But weren't you worried about being absorbed?" Kurt's eyes were bright, and contained a small amount of hero-worship.  
  
"Did you put up a magnetic shield or something?" Scott asked.  
  
Erik snorted and, feeling nervous, reverted to arrogance.  
  
"I didn't _have_ to," he said haughtily. "Not with the amount of lipstick that Rogue wears."  
  
Then he froze as his brain caught up with his mouth. So did the X-Men. Everyone turned to look at Rogue.  
  
Rogue looked at Erik calmly. "Well in that case you can feel safe because," her voice altered to a low hiss, "nothing on this earth would make me ever touch you again, you creep."  
  
She turned on her heel and strode towards the left exit. Halfway to the door she started running.  
  
"Oh hell," Erik said.  
  
"Nice one Erik," Kitty's voice dripped with contempt.  
  
Erik went red. "Ummm... excuse me." He dashed after Rogue.  
  
"What an idiot," Lance observed once the music had restarted and people were once again dancing.  
  
Just at that moment the floor trembled and the strobe lights blinked on and off, causing some of the dances to let out yelps of alarm. Lance found himself pinpointed with angry glares and held up his hands defensively.  
  
"I swear it wasn't me!"  
  
"Then who?" Scott said, not believing Lance's denial for a second.  
  
The doors of the main entrance flew open with a crash and Wanda stood there, her expression one of barely concealed rage. "Where is he? WHERE is HE?" she cried, eyes darting about the gymnasium.  
  
Todd bounded over with no consideration of the danger. "Whassup, sweetums?"  
  
"WHERE IS MY FA..." Some small shred of sanity checked Wanda and she amended her demand quickly. "WHERE IS ERIK?"  
  
***  
  
Erik burst through the doors and let them bang shut behind him as he stood in the dimly lit hallway.  
  
"How did she move so quickly in those shoes?" he wondered.  
  
The click of heels on lino alerted his attention and he spotted a slim figure hurrying away.  
  
"Rogue!"  
  
She paused, her back to him, her hands balled into fists - a damp tissue poking out of one hand. "What do you want now, Erik?" she asked in a harsh voice. "Feeling the need to insult something else about me?"  
  
"No," he said, catching up to her. He placed his gloved hand on her shoulder and gently tugged her round to face him. "I was actually going to apologise."  
  
Rogue slowly looked up at him and his eyes widened slightly. Her face was almost naked except for some eye shadow and Erik thought he had never seen her look so vulnerable - an impression emphasised by the faint reddening around her eyes. She had cried and he felt like a heel.  
  
"Look," he said awkwardly. "Why don't we go back in and..."  
  
"Ah'm not going back," said Rogue acidly. "Ah knew it was a bad idea to come in the first place and tonight's only proven me right," she turned on her heel. "Ah going home."  
  
"Abandoning me just like that, eh?" Erik said. "I recollect that I didn't particularly want to come to this either."  
  
She looked back at him. "Ya could've said no when Ah asked. Ah didn't force you to accept," her eyes narrowed. "Or did you just feel sorry for me? Huh. you probably did."  
  
"I would never accept an invitation because I pitied someone," Erik said firmly. He moved closer to her. "Rogue... I went because..."  
  
The door to the gymnasium opened, spilling colourful lights and sound into the corridor. Voices were heard and people stared to emerge - laughing and talking. Beside Erik, Rogue shrank back, painfully aware of the connotations that her peers would place on her being here with him.  
  
"Damn!" Erik swore under his breath. He grabbed her wrist and suddenly Rogue found herself flying down the corridor, away from the other people, Erik holding her to him.  
  
"What are you doing?" she squeaked in astonishment as, using his magnetic powers, Erik whirled them round a corner and out of the building. "Someone could've seen us!"  
  
"But they didn't," he said, setting them both down gently on the far edge of the football field.  
  
A reluctant smile tugged at Rogue's mouth. "Well, true..." she rubbed her arms as the light chill wind prickled her skin. The sudden weight and warmth of cloth enveloped her shoulders, causing her to look up.  
  
Erik took a small step back and smiled at her. She flushed slightly, twitching the ends of his jacket so that it sat more comfortably on her smaller frame. "Uh. thanks, but won't you get cold?"  
  
Erik shook his head. "No, I can generate a thin magnetic shield that will keep the cold away, besides... aren't we going home anyway? I'm not so weak that I will crumple at the first touch of a chill wind!"  
  
Rogue dropped her gaze. "You don't have to come with me," she said. "You can go back to the dance. Ah'm sure there are plenty of girls who'd want to dance with you," she bit her lip. "And ya don't have to wear gloves to dance with them."  
  
"You don't fool me, Rogue," Erik said in strangely gentle tone that made her look at him again. She could see him clearly thanks to the lights on the field and the expression in his eyes made her heart leap. "You really do want to be there..."  
  
Rogue sort refuge from her feelings in anger. "How do you know what Ah want?" she snapped. "Ah didn't know that you were suddenly a telepath as well now!" she crossed her arms and glared at him. "Ah do NOT want to associate with a bunch of bubbleheads and jocks! Ah going home!" she said defiantly and stalked past him.  
  
Erik watched her go. It was frustrating trying to get through to this stubborn, prickly girl who refused to admit that she was achingly lonely. And, as much as he didn't want to admit it, Erik knew that he kept trying to reach her because he wanted to be the one to help her banish that loneliness.  
  
But how?  
  
Rogue placed so much importance on touch, without it she would never believe that she wasn't alone. However, Erik was stumped as to how he could touch her, even he couldn't...  
  
(Did you put up a magnetic shield or something?)  
  
Scott's question from less than an hour ago floated into his mind and Erik inhaled sharply. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of it before? If he could generate a shield to keep out the cold, why couldn't he generate one to stop Rogue from leeching his memories and powers?  
  
"Rogue! Wait!" he ran after her, stripping his gloves off his hands and stuffing them in his pockets.  
  
She stopped and turned an irritated gaze on him. "What now?"  
  
Erik took a deep breath, mentally tweaking his shield and sending up a prayer that this would work and he wouldn't end up in a coma, he placed his bare hands on her bare shoulders. "I never got to apologize properly to you."  
  
"Is that it?" she snorted. "Ah really don't..." her voice trailed off as she became aware of his hands. "Ah... uh..."  
  
"Shh... don't panic," Erik laid his fingers on her lips. She stared up at him, green eyes wide and questioning. "It's a bio-magnetic shield, in theory it should mean that I can touch you without you absorbing me."  
  
"In theory?" Rogue gasped past his fingers. She felt tingly, breathless and almost scared. He lifted his other hand to touch her cheek, gently stroking the side of her face. His hands seemed to be burning her bare skin and she was totally aware of the feel of his skin, the pressure of his fingers and she felt the prickle of tears in her eyes. "Erik..."  
  
Erik hadn't intended to do more than simply show her that he could touch her skin, perhaps just remove her gloves and take her bare hand, but his body wasn't listening to his brain. Involuntarily his hands caressed her shoulders, neck and face and he moved closer so that their bodies touched. If Rogue had protested or tried to push him away he would have stopped, but she simply closed her eyes and let out a little sigh, clearly revelling in the unfamiliar sensation of touch. Erik's breathing turned ragged and he leaned down, his mouth hovering over hers. A small part of his brain screamed for attention, yelling that this was a dangerous, stupid move - how could he be sure that the shield would hold? Erik ignored common sense and gently, firmly, placed his lips on Rogue's.  
  
Her eyes flew open as he kissed her - properly this time- and for a brief second she succumbed to panic, but when she realised that she wasn't absorbing him Rogue leaned into the kiss. A nagging voice in the back of her mind told her that she should stop now because this wasn't simply a teenage boy she was kissing, but the Master of Magnetism, X-Men adversary and a man much, MUCH older than herself. Recklessly, Rogue thrust the voice away and embraced Erik, abandoning herself to the feelings welling up within her.  
  
Eventually the need to breath was too insistent to ignore and they parted, remaining in a close embrace, noses almost touching. Erik broke the brief silence. "I shouldn't have done that," he said softly.  
  
"No," Rogue agreed. "Ah shouldn't have let you do it either."  
  
"After all, once I was your enemy..."  
  
"Well, it's not going to happen again."  
  
Erik's fingers delicately traced the line of her jaw before moving up to pull strands of white and auburn hair from her face. "Absolutely not," he said. "A moments madness not to be repeated," his breath was warm on her skin.  
  
"Yes," Rogue murmured. Her head tilted back as his moved closer once more. "Never."  
  
"It would be... a..." Erik's lips brushed hers. "mis..."  
  
"FATHER!"  
  
They sprang violently apart, whirling to face the source of the cry.  
  
"Wanda?" Rogue blinked. "What... oh no..."  
  
The ground rippled beneath their feet, some tufts of grass uprooting and floating away. Wooden benches wobbled, bolts pinged and popped out of their settings. And Wanda glowed.  
  
"After all this time," she growled. "I will finally pay you back for EVERYTHING!"  
  
Erik moved forward, hands outstretched. "Wanda, please... listen to me... what I did to you, I'm sorry, I..."  
  
"SHUT UP!" Wanda's power flexed and Erik was bowled backwards. "I don't want to listen to your LIES!"  
  
"Stop it, Wanda! Stop it NOW!" Rogue leapt in front of Erik. "You can't do this, not now!"  
  
Wanda's blazing gaze focused on Rogue. "If you don't move, Rogue, I'll take you down WITH him!"  
  
"Is this what you want Wanda? Is this what you really want?" Rogue screamed in Wanda's face. "Do you really want to see which one of us is faster, stronger?"  
  
"You can't stop me Rogue, now get out of my way!" Wanda screamed back.  
  
"You think Ah can't stop you?" Rogue responded. "You may have a lot of power, but Ah do too! Ah've already taken yours once. You want to go through that again?"  
  
"Why are you helping him? He betrayed me!"  
  
"So? Ah stole some of HIS powers and then HE threw ME into a building once. It's just the way things are in this crazy world. Ah don't pretend it makes sense. It's just sometimes you know what the right thing to do is, and this is one of those times! Come _on_ Wanda, you've met him, you've talked to him, before either of you knew anything about each other. This isn't 'Magneto', this is _Erik_. You know that."  
  
Wanda glared at her, but the ground stopped rippling and the insane look started to fade from her eyes. "And what if this is all another one of his tricks?"  
  
"It isn't," Rogue glared back.  
  
"But what if it _is_?"  
  
"Then Ah will personally help you punt him into orbit," Rogue promised.  
  
"Ummm..." Erik said.  
  
"SHUT UP!" They both yelled at him.  
  
Erik's eyebrows twitched. "Okay."  
  
Wanda eyed Rogue, a small smile tugging the corners of her mouth. "So you'll help me if he reverts? Even after what I just saw you two doing?"  
  
Rogue went brick red. "That was a..."  
  
"EEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"  
  
The three teenagers froze. "That came from Bayville Park..." Rogue breathed fearfully. "Wolverine..."  
  
"Would not scream like that," said Erik grimly. "That sounded distinctly feminine." Erik, Wanda and Rogue sprinted down the pathway to the park, and felt rather than saw a white blur go past them.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Pietro circled back and stopped in front of them, quivering like the Road Runner.  
  
"Ohmygodwhattheheckisgoingonallthesetentaclessomekindabigmonster..." Pietro was almost gibbering in raw fear.  
  
"Slow DOWN!" All three shouted at him, and Pietro's fear whatever was out there was briefly outweighed by his fear of the three angry mutant teens.  
  
"My date was feeling a little hot," he said slowly. "So we went for a walk. Then... tentacles!"  
  
"Tentacles?" Rogue asked in a wary tone of voice.  
  
"Tentacles?" Wanda repeated, with a slight tone of panic in her voice.  
  
"Tentacles," Erik sighed. Resigned, he looked back where Pietro had come from. "I suppose we should go check it out."  
  
"Maybe we should get reinforcements first," Rogue said.  
  
"Yeah, that would be... where's your date?" Erik demanded suddenly, turning to glower at Pietro.  
  
"Uh, well you see..."  
  
"You LEFT her there?!" Rogue's voice spiralled up into a shriek. "Augh!" Turning on her heel, she headed into the darkness of the park at a dead run, pausing only to kick off her high heels.  
  
Wanda settled for scorching her brother with a look that by rights should have left him a smoking heap of ashes, before heading off after Rogue. Erik snarled and grabbed him by the arm. "Make yourself useful," he said, shaking him slightly. "Go tell the other X-Men what's happened and where we are."  
  
"Why should I?" Pietro demanded.  
  
Erik leaned in close. "Because if you don't I will ensure that you are NEVER mistaken for me again." He smiled gently. "Get the drift?"  
  
Pietro quailed. There was something in Erik's eyes that reminded him irresistibly of the last time he'd failed his father in something. It wasn't a good memory.  
  
"Yougotit."  
  
As Pietro flashed away across the grass, Erik turned, lifted himself into the air with his powers, and flew after the two girls.  
  
***  
  
*Can't believe that idiot*, Rogue thought to herself as she ran. *Stupid, moronic, useless...*  
  
Her trail of thought came to an abrupt halt as she rounded a slight curve in the park to see a frightened girl cowering by a tree as familiar metallic tentacles caressed her.  
  
"HELP ME!" The girl screamed as Rogue came into view.  
  
"Duh," Rogue snarled back. Taking a deep breath, she held both hands out in front of her and then jerked them away hard. The metal tentacles bothering the girl were violently shoved away from her, leaving a clear path, which she didn't hesitate to run down towards Rogue.  
  
"Thank you," she whispered as she ran past the skunk-haired mutant.  
  
"Nrgh," was Rogue's only response. Sustaining the magnetic "walls" while the girl ran was a lot harder than simply smashing the tentacles apart. She bit her lip and concentrated as beads of sweat ran down her face. Some of the tentacles began to head towards her.  
  
"Get BACK!" Wanda spat as she drew even with Rogue. Throwing hex bolts as fast as she could create them, she reduced the tentacles to shreds of tattered metal, but more were coming. They came out of the drains, out of the ground, shattering through dirt and rock, and even some of the trees. They were everywhere.  
  
"I can't hold this much longer," Rogue said through gritted teeth. "There's just too many of them."  
  
Erik flew down to land beside her, and added his abilities to her now very shaky "walls". "I sent Pietro to get help," he said. "But I don't know how long it will take to get here."  
  
"Then let's fall back and wait for the others," Rogue wheezed. Erik and Wanda nodded, and the trio began to walk slowly back the way they'd come. Tentacles continued to advance, but now some had come up through the ground behind them, and twined to produce a fairly solid wall. Erik grunted and focused some power to blast them apart, but more came, wrapping and binding until they formed a thick, heavy wall.  
  
"Can't you blast through it?" Wanda demanded, her voice heavy with suppressed panic.  
  
"Not without letting the ones in front of us through," Erik replied.  
  
Wanda sighed. "Do it. I'll handle them, you get the wall, and we'll make a run for it. Plan?"  
  
"Plan," Rogue agreed.  
  
Erik nodded. "On three. One, two... THREE!" He focused all his energy on the metal wall behind him and ripped a hole through its centre. "RUN!" He shouted.  
  
But it was already too late. The tentacles in front of them finally smashed through the remains of Rogue's shield, and Wanda was unable to get them all. Rogue managed to avoid getting hit by the simple tactic of diving to the ground, but Erik and Wanda were both grabbed by a number of tentacles.  
  
"NOOOO!!!" Wanda screamed.  
  
"Get OFF ME!" Erik shouted, tearing at the cords.  
  
Rogue looked around, trying to think of some way to help.  
  
"The ground!" She yelped suddenly. "WANDA! Don't target the tentacles, target the SOURCE! Blow up the ground, blow up the park!"  
  
Fighting down the fear that threatened to drag her back into the darkness, Wanda focused a huge hexbolt in her hands.  
  
"Take THIS!" She shouted, and let fly.  
  
BOOM!  
  
The ground rumbled and shook, and dirt and bits of trees and plants flew everywhere. One particularly large boulder smashed through Erik's shields and hit him hard on his forehead, cutting in and drawing blood, and also knocking him unconscious, a massive bruise already forming. Broken bits of tentacles landed everywhere, and Wanda was about to screech with triumph when she caught sight of the hollow tunnel her explosion had revealed. Like a massive nest of snakes, it seethed with tentacles, and they reached up and pulled her down, screaming all the way. Others snagged Rogue, still struggling but unable to overcome her opponent, and the unconscious Erik and dragged them both in.  
  
Darkness swallowed them and, as they moved further and further down, all Rogue could hear was Wanda sobbing with fear and the rasp of the moving tentacles. The horrendous experience seemed to go on forever and Rogue was about ready to scream when light hit her eyes and she was momentarily blinded.  
  
Blinking away the spots dancing before her, she focused and tried to make sense of the situation. She was still wrapped from neck to feet in metal tentacles, on either side she could see Erik and Wanda in the same situation except that Erik was still unconscious and Wanda had one tentacle wrapped around her eyes - obviously an attempt to prevent her using hex powers. Blinking Rogue looked around, they were in a large room that seemed to be about the size of the Bayville High gymnasium. Around the walls were large openings that clearly led to the sewer system and strange objects that looked a lot like thin metal 'beds' holding some sort of butter yellow bubble or cocoon. Some of the bubbles seemed to be occupied.  
  
Fear welled up in her once more and Rogue swallowed against the urge to scream hysterically. She tried to see what sort of monster had produced these masses of tentacles, but they just seemed to lead to a huge metallic dome in the middle of the room. There was a panel on one side of the dome that resembled a console and lights flickered on it. Rogue drew in a deep breath and prepared to try and break the bonds using her magnetic powers, but a groan on her left distracted her. Erik was coming round.  
  
His eyelids flickered briefly and then snapped open. He looked at her with a mildly confused expression. Some other emotion flashed in his eyes, but before she could identify it, it was gone and Erik's face could've been carved from stone.  
  
"Are you okay?" Rogue asked quietly, eyeing the trickle of blood coming from the cut in his forehead.  
  
"I'll live," he said curtly and then managed a slight, almost apologetic smile. "I've got one hell of a headache though."  
  
"Ohhh... my poor sugerplum!" a voice, sweet and sugary enough to produce instant cavities, reverberated from one of the dark tunnels. There was a whirring sound and a figure glided into sight.  
  
Rogue's eyes widened. "What the hell...?"  
  
The voice belonged to a robot. It was the size of a tall human and shaped like a woman wearing a short, hooped skirt. Its bottom half was a long thick stalk tapering down to a roller, which allowed it to move around. The head was a bucket shape and the eyes slanted, large and red with the mouth a parody of a woman's lips. It was dressed like an old-fashioned nanny or maid with a ruffled white apron and ruffled cap.  
  
The robot halted before them and looked at Erik. "Do not worry. Nanny will look after you forever."  
  
***  
  
to be continued 


	6. Chapter Five: The End

Chapter Five: The end  
  
Disclaimer: Not ours, blah. blah  
  
***  
  
Saturday: (AM)  
  
It was Kurt who spotted them. He had been worried about Rogue and went to find her, but instead saw her, Erik and Wanda racing off in the direction of the park. Immediately Kurt went back to the gymnasium and told Scott. who reacted to the news with an annoyed growl.  
  
"I thought we _told_ them." he grumbled.  
  
He was cut off by the arrival of Pietro who came in, grabbed Lance's arm and started gabbling about metal tentacles. That was enough for the X-Men. Within minutes Scott, Jean, Kurt, Kitty and Evan were in the park, looking down at a huge dark hole.  
  
"Well, at least we know where they went," quipped Bobby.  
  
"Yes," said Jean. "And." she stopped and whirled around. "Bobby! Amara! What are you doing here?"  
  
"Helping," said Amara simply. "We saw you guys running off and figured that something was up, so we followed. Besides. Bobby kept stepping on my toes, I was GLAD to have an excuse to leave!"  
  
"Hey, if you can't keep up."  
  
"Now is NOT the time!" Scott snapped. "We have to help Rogue. and Erik," he added.  
  
"And Wanda," Toad hopped into view followed by the rest of the Brotherhood (Pietro being dragged along by Lance). "My poor sweetums must be scared stiff!"  
  
"Oh no," said Scott. "We can handle this by _ourselves_."  
  
"Forget it Summers," Lance snarled. "Wanda's one of OUR team mates, _we're_ going down there."  
  
"Oh yeah?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"GUYS!" Jean shouted. "I thought you just said that this wasn't the time! We can't afford pointless bickering right now. BOTH of our groups are missing teammates, and God only knows what's down there. We'll ALL go, but keep an eye out and don't let yourself get distracted by these arguments. Stay in pairs and keep your eyes peeled. Now everybody MOVE!"  
  
"Yes mother," someone muttered. Jean glared around, trying to work out who it was, before everyone began entering the sewers.  
  
"Ewwww..." Kitty moaned. "My new shoes. God, I hope I don't slip."  
  
"Hang on to my arm, I'll catch you if you do," Lance offered.  
  
Behind him, Blob and Bobby both made gagging noises.  
  
"It's so dark," muttered Jean. "Did anyone bring a light?"  
  
"Sure, that's what I bring to EVERY school dance I go to."  
  
"Shut up Bobby. Anyone?"  
  
There was a red glow as Amara invoked her powers.  
  
"Can you go any brighter?" Toad asked.  
  
"Not without slagging everything around me," she replied. "Not that I'd really care about _you_."  
  
"Cut the chatter people, we don't know what's down here," Scott snapped. "Amara, you and I will take point."  
  
They continued down in relative silence. The glow from Amara's power did little to dispel the heavy darkness surrounding them and everyone's skin crawled with nerves as time went on.  
  
"How much further?" Evan hissed at one point. "It feels like we've been walking for hours."  
  
"Perhaps we are descending into hell." Kurt muttered and crossed himself.  
  
Scott halted abruptly. "Amara, douse the light!" he whispered urgently.  
  
She did so and they could all see a faint glow up ahead. Kitty gulped. "I guess that's our destination," she whispered.  
  
"You see anywhere else to go?" Pietro snarked. "This sucks!"  
  
"Shh!" Jean hissed.  
  
They all crept on, stepping as lightly as possible - although Blob's heavy tread made everyone wince more than once. As the light brightened they could see it was a doorway and Scott signalled that they should all flatten against the walls. Kitty and Jean made little whimpering noises as they pressed against the damp wall, but heroically resigned themselves to ruined dresses.  
  
Scott shuffled forward and could soon look into the room the doorway led in to. He gaped at the size of the room, frowned at the odd cocoon structures lining the walls and finally focused on the metal dome in the centre and the tentacles rearing out of it. He clenched his fists when he saw the figures wrapped up in the tentacles, but relief flooded him when he noticed that they were moving and seemed relatively unharmed. However, before he could signal Rogue he heard the sugary voice coming from somewhere out of his line of sight.  
  
"What the hell is THAT?" squeaked Toad as Nanny rolled into view and halted before Erik and the others.  
  
"It looks like a French maid gone wrong," muttered Lance.  
  
The robot halted, looking up at the captured mutants. "Do not worry. Nanny will look after you forever."  
  
"Not good," Lance said. "Let's go!"  
  
"Wait! Plan! Dammit!"  
  
**  
  
Rogue's head snapped around as a brave voice declaimed. "Get your tentacles off our friends!" She blinked.  
  
"Lance?"  
  
Lance smirked. "Hey Roguey. Yeah, French maid doll, you heard me. Let em go now!"  
  
"Oh," Kitty sighed quietly, stars in her eyes.  
  
"Bleurgh."  
  
"SHUT UP BOBBY!"  
  
Nanny whirled around to face the assembled X-Men and Brotherhood.  
  
"Oohhh," she clasped her hands together. "_Another_ little sugarplum for my collection. And you brought friends. How sweet! Nanny is coming sweetums."  
  
From the other doorways around the room came whirring sounds and several slightly smaller versions of Nanny rolled in to view.  
  
"Oh crap," Pietro said.  
  
"You said it," agreed Evan.  
  
"Now don't be difficult children, or Nanny will have to discipline you."  
  
"Discipline this!" Evan shouted, shooting some spikes out through his forearms and striking one of the Nanny clones. The spikes shattered on impact.  
  
"Uh oh."  
  
"Tut tut tut! What a bad little boy!" Nanny said cheerfully. "Now I will have to teach you a lesson."  
  
The mini-Nanny's suddenly shuddered and produced a ridiculously large amount of weaponry. Gun barrels gleamed, blades flashed, and other strange- looking implements just looked scary.  
  
"Fan out, take them down," Scott began to gave orders, then paused. "Oh hell, just shoot em!"  
  
And battle was joined.  
  
Rogue watched with alarm as complete chaos erupted. "Watch where you're shooting!" She yelled as one of Scott's eyebeams came rather close to her head. "HEY!"  
  
Lance clenched his fists.  
  
"NO!" Kitty grabbed him. "You'll bring the whole place down on top of us. I have a better idea, come with me." Clasping his hand, she phased them both through tentacles, leaving shorted circuitry and wires behind. "Stretch out your arms," she called. "We'll cover more space this way!"  
  
"This is kinda cool," Lance said with a smile. "Head for the dome."  
  
The two mutants sprinted through tentacles to the dome in the centre of the room.  
  
Still cocooned and groggy, Erik watched them. "No," he murmured. "Don't, it's a trap."  
  
"We got it!" Kitty shouted as she and Lance ran full tilt into the dome. And then screamed as electricity shocked through their bodies.  
  
"Ahhh... not a good idea," said Lance, as he collapsed next to the now- solid Kitty.  
  
However, their plan of attack had achieved one thing. Many of the tentacles were now disabled, and loosened enough of the grip on Erik and Rogue, that the two of them could slip free. After getting to their feet they both headed for Wanda, who was still unconscious. However, their rescue attempt was foiled by two Nanny clones who came at them, all guns blazing. Quickly, Rogue yanked the still-dazed Erik aside into one of the corridors leading away from the main room, desperately pushing the clones back with her powers.  
  
Erik's head was pounding, but he slung an arm around Rogue and, leaning on her, turned to face the clones.  
  
"What are you going to do?"  
  
With a ghastly screeching sound, the two clones were ripped in half.  
  
"That," said Erik.  
  
"Oh," said Rogue.  
  
"Uh," Erik stumbled back against the wall, one hand to his head where the cut was bleeding freely once more.  
  
"You're hurt!" Rogue pushed him gently into a sitting position and examined his head. "Hang on a sec."  
  
Taking a good grip on her skirt, she tore at it sharply, ripping strips of it free to bind around his head in a makeshift bandage.  
  
As she leaned in to tie the ends together, Erik couldn't help but notice how little of her outfit had survived. *This is not good,* he thought to himself. *Not now.*  
  
"We need to get back to the fight," Rogue said.  
  
"Not without a plan," he said dryly.  
  
"Do you have one?"  
  
"Actually..."  
  
**  
  
Back in the main room, the battle was not going well for the X-Men and the Brotherhood. Enough tentacles had managed to wrap around the Blob to actually pick him up, and they were attempting to squish Toad with his shouting teammate.  
  
"Stop it!" Blob shouted.  
  
"YOU stop it!" Toad yelled, hopping desperately up and around the room, including onto the cocoons. Splatting onto one of them, he stopped and stared. "Boom-Boom?"  
  
"WAAAAHHH!!!"  
  
Blob's incoming scream warned him to jump again. This time he recognised another figure.  
  
"Aw man, if they got _him_ we're toast," he muttered, jumping off Wolverine's cocoon.  
  
Meanwhile, Amara and Bobby had actually worked out a plan. He froze a clone, and then she melted it. The combination of both intense temperatures tended to result in total destruction. Unfortunately, it took time, and they still had to dodge other attacks.  
  
Jean and Scott were holding their own. Kurt and Pietro had evacuated the unconscious Kitty and Lance, and had just returned to the fray, when the south wall burst apart, revealing Erik, one hand outflung, magnetic energy crackling around him.  
  
"HOW DARE YOU DEFY MA..." he thundered in a dark and deep voice before pausing. "Uh, me?"  
  
"Oh that's wonderful," said Rogue sarcastically from behind him. "You're so commanding!"  
  
The real Nanny turned to confront him. "Now, now, don't be a naughty boy."  
  
Erik ground his teeth. "Don't call me a boy!"  
  
"Temper temper!" Nanny waggled a finger at him admonishingly.  
  
Rogue poked him, "Remember the plan," she muttered as she slipped past him.  
  
Erik ground his teeth even harder. Then he hung his head. "I'm sorry Nanny," he choked out. "I didn't mean to be bad."  
  
"Oh, you poor little darling," Nanny gushed. "Does this mean you've learnt your lesson?"  
  
"Yes," Erik said humbly. "I promise I'll be good. I'll never, ever, be bad again." *Someone is going to DIE for this!*  
  
"So you're going to be a good little boy from now on?"  
  
*GAAAHHHH!!!* "Yes. Nanny." Erik said through gritted teeth. *Dammit what is TAKING them so long?*  
  
Rogue snuck round to Scott. "We need you to create a diversion!" She called to him.  
  
"What do you think we're doing?" Scott snarled. "Playing around?"  
  
"Don't be like that, Erik has a plan. Diversion! We need one now!"  
  
"Gah. fine!" Scott reached for his shades. "You want a diversion..." he took off his shades and cut loose full power. "You GOT one!"  
  
"WHAT?" Nanny turned around as Scott blasted everything in sight. Literally.  
  
And Erik struck.  
  
Taking a step to bring him directly behind Nanny, he concentrated all of his energy into immobilising her. She resisted fiercely, half-turning to face him.  
  
"Rogue!" He shouted, sweat pouring down his face.  
  
Rogue lunged across the room and yanked the apron off Nanny, then pulled down the metal panel that it revealed in her middle. Reaching a hand into the mess of circuits, she began pulling certain wires, muttering all the while. "Blue, green, black, red, purple... Purple?"  
  
"Keep going and hurry up!" Erik said as one of Nanny's guns began to turn towards him. "She's too strong!"  
  
"Orange, yellow, white, why the hell are there so many wires? Ummm..."  
  
"Pink," Erik prompted.  
  
Nanny weakened, but the remaining Nanny clones converged on Erik and Rogue, firing frantically. Only the combined effort of the remaining X-Men held them back.  
  
"God I hate pink," Rogue muttered. "Pink, and finally..." She reached right in. "GRAY!"  
  
With a vicious yank, she tore the last wire out and the light in Nanny's eyes blinked out. All around the room, the Nanny clones whirred to a halt and the tentacles stopped, falling to the ground.  
  
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" THUMP.  
  
"Urk."  
  
Blob landed with a crunch on several of the frozen clones, and the unfortunate Toad, who'd managed to keep ahead all this time.  
  
"That was amazing!" Scott said. "How did you know...?"  
  
But neither Rogue nor Erik were listening. They were both removing the last tentacles from the now conscious Wanda.  
  
"Get em off, get em off!" She shouted, her voice high in panic. Things began to tremble. Lights flickered.  
  
"Wanda, calm down!" Rogue said. Biting her lip, she reached a bare hand forward. Erik seized it in one of his own and the assembled mutants gawked as he shook his head, apparently unaffected by Rogue's power-draining abilities.  
  
"Wait, let me try," he said to Rogue.  
  
"Wanda, Wanda... can you hear me?"  
  
"YOU! FATHER! I'll KILL you!" Wanda screeched. Erik laid his hands on her shoulders and looked directly into her eyes.  
  
"That's enough Wanda," he said in a firm tone. "It's over now. Calm down. Breathe deeply, and control yourself."  
  
Wanda snarled at him and he shook her gently. "I mean it. Calm down. You're safe now. Your friends are here."  
  
Wanda glared at him for a few more seconds and then closed her eyes, drawing in a deep, shuddering breath.  
  
From the other side of the room, Pietro stared at Erik in horror as the full of implications of what he had just witnessed cudgelled his brain. '_Father_?'  
  
But no one paid any attention to the speedster.  
  
"Are you okay sweetums?"  
  
She let all the air out in a huge sigh and turned to look at the somewhat flatter Toad. "Don't call me sweetums," she said in a dead-level voice. Then she turned back to Rogue and Erik. "Let's get the hell out of here."  
  
Getting out of there took some time, as everyone had to combine to free all of the other people that Nanny had kidnapped, including an angry Wolverine and Beast. The loudest complaints of all came from Beast, who was most annoyed at being captured, and the goo in his fur. Boom-Boom collapsed rather gratefully on Amara, who hugged her friend tightly.  
  
Scott stared at the mess of tentacles and wires. "I wonder who built this thing?" He said out loud. "And what it was here for?"  
  
"Well," Kurt was looking at Nanny. "You know, her head reminds me of..." his voice trailed off.  
  
"Magneto?" Erik suggested.  
  
There was a long pause.  
  
"Yes," said Jean. "But. obviously he had abandoned this plan, hadn't he?"  
  
"Obviously," said Erik with a slight smile.  
  
"So, I guess that Nanny had just gone rogue," Scott supplied.  
  
"I guess so," said Erik. *She's not the only one.* He rubbed his head. "Uh, need to go home, lie down, take painkillers, and sleep."  
  
"Add wash," Rogue said. "We all stink."  
  
Jean looked rather mournfully at the wreck of her dress. "Oh well," she said. "At least it was on sale."  
  
***  
  
Rogue and Erik pushed through the bushes of the park, opting for the direct route home, rather than the scenic way around.  
  
"Well, this was an interesting end to the charity ball," Rogue said.  
  
"Yes," Erik agreed. "Another eventful evening."  
  
"We do seem to be having a lot of those lately," Rogue said lightly.  
  
Erik stumbled and Rogue moved in to support him. "Put your arm around my shoulders," she ordered. "You got quite a nasty knock on the head earlier," she said. "We should probably get it checked for concussion."  
  
"Mmm..." said Erik. He looked down at her. "You know, I think that dress is quite ruined."  
  
"Oh well," Rogue sighed. "I didn't like it that much anyway."  
  
Laughing, they pushed through the last bush and stepped out onto the sidewalk.  
  
"Way hey!" A loud and obnoxious voice sounded out. "Looks like SOMEBODY got lucky tonight after all!"  
  
Both mutants paled. *Oh no. Please. Not that. ANYTHING but that.*  
  
They turned to see Duncan Matthews grinning drunkenly at them.  
  
"Nice outfit Rogue," he smirked.  
  
Rogue blushed and tried to hide behind Erik.  
  
"So big guy, I see you made the touchdown," Duncan laughed, punching Erik lightly in the shoulder. Erik stared coldly at him, and then swung his fist up in a classic haymaker. Duncan's eyes crossed, and without a word he crashed down onto the sidewalk, unconscious.  
  
"Ah, that feels better," Erik said, shaking out his hand. "Kids today."  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
Erik froze.  
  
Rogue stared at him a moment. "You know," she said calmly. "It's funny how you knew the EXACT right combination of wires to pull."  
  
Erik just looked at her. Then he straightened up and threw his shoulders back. "Yes, it was fortunate."  
  
"OH MY GOD!!!!" Rogue shrieked. "You're Magneto again!"  
  
"Technically I was Magneto the entire time, it's just that..."  
  
"AH CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" Rogue shouted. "Ah FINALLY meet someone Ah actually LIKE and..." she burst into tears. "... and you're. argh!!!" She ran off.  
  
"Rogue! Wait! Rogue!" Erik called after her. "Damn."  
  
**  
  
Later that day, Erik entered the Professor's study.  
  
"Ah, Erik."  
  
"Charles," he returned, seating himself in one of the large leather chairs.  
  
"I trust you slept well after last nights events?" Professor Xavier looked at him meaningfully.  
  
"Yes, thank you," Erik calmly returned his gaze.  
  
"And I imagine you're pleased to have your memories returned," Professor Xavier continued.  
  
"It was helpful," Erik smirked faintly.  
  
The two men stared at each other for a few minutes, before Xavier sighed. "Alright Erik, or should I be calling you Magnus? I recall that you preferred it when you were Magneto."  
  
"Erik is fine, I've... grown used to it."  
  
"Very well then, may I inquire as to your plans from now on?" Xavier raised an eyebrow. "To be honest, I'm surprised you returned last night."  
  
"Mmmm," Erik regarded his clasped hands and reminded himself that Charles was far too polite to ever take a peek at his thoughts, no matter how curious he was. "I suppose because... I have no real desire to leave at the moment." He raised his eyes to the ceiling and regarded it casually. "This last week has been... very interesting."  
  
Both of Xavier's eyebrows shot up. "Indeed. Does that mean that you've come around to my way of thinking?"  
  
"That humans and mutants can live together in peace?" Erik snorted and returned his gaze to Xavier. "No. The blow to my head hasn't scrambled my thinking _that_ badly Charles."  
  
Xavier stared at him coldly. "Then what purpose _do_ you have in mind? Why should I allow the single greatest threat to my vision of a united world to remain under this roof, to gather knowledge, power, and possibly corrupt my X-Men?"  
  
Erik snorted again. "I am _not_ the greatest threat to your proposed 'vision' Charles, and you know it. Bigotry and hatred will go on with or without me. And if you and your X-Men truly believe that your way is the best, then they should be proof _against_ any 'corruptions' I might offer. They've turned me down before after all." He pursed his lips. "Nor do I have any designs on your 'secrets'. I assure you, I intend no harm to any under this roof. Why should I hurt my own kind? Hell, I'll even go out on your little 'missions'."  
  
"Then why, why stay?" Xavier pressed.  
  
Erik paused. "Because... it pleases me to do so."  
  
Xavier regarded him and then carefully said, "She's... a little young for you Erik."  
  
Erik mentally damned teenage hormones as his face turned bright red. "That's not it at all!" He protested hotly. "I simply have no desire to go back to my other plans at the moment."  
  
Xavier's silence spoke volumes. "But you still haven't told me why I should allow you to stay?"  
  
"Oh Charles," Erik sighed. "Don't pretend you don't realise the opportunity I'm giving you. I'll be _here_, where you can keep and eye on me and indoctrinate me in peace and love and harmony et cetera. Not to mention the fact that, while I am _here_, I am not out _there_, rubbing my hands together, cackling maniacally and plotting my evil revenge against all humanity and so on."  
  
Professor Xavier's lips twitched in a half-smile. "I see. Well, how can I turn down such a generous offer?"  
  
Now it was Erik's turn for his lips to twitch in a half-smile. "You can't."  
  
"No, I can't." Professor Xavier nodded. "As you say, this is too great a chance not to take it." He paused. "But I'm not sure if the X-Men will like it."  
  
"Don't tell them then," Erik said dismissively.  
  
"You don't think they'll work it out?" Xavier asked.  
  
Erik paused. "Some might," he admitted reluctantly. "Rogue already has."  
  
"Ah. Very well then," Professor Xavier smiled. "In that case, we will allow Rogue to have the final say in whether you stay or not."  
  
Erik looked surprised.  
  
"You will go and explain to her that you wish to stay," Xavier said. "And if _she_ accepts your reasons for staying and desire for secrecy, then you may remain in the mansion."  
  
Erik stared at him in something close to horror. Xavier hid a smirk. *Oh yes Erik,* he thought to himself. *And you'll have to give her slightly more convincing reasons than you have me.*  
  
"Rogue is currently sitting in the rose gardens," he said, quickly scanning for the girl. "Off you go."  
  
Erik headed for the door, his face pale.  
  
"Oh, and Erik?" Xavier called innocently. "Good luck."  
  
**  
  
Rogue sat in the gardens, absently twirling a leaf between her fingers, trying to think through the tangled mess in her mind. Sleep had claimed her before she could do much thinking about Erik. no, Magneto's revived memories, so it was only once she woke. only two hours ago. that the full impact hit her.  
  
Sneaking out on to the balcony so as not to wake Kitty, Rogue had indulged herself in a very private and very uncharacteristic bout of tears. Erik might have been an arrogant pain in the butt most of the time, but he had managed to worm his way into her heart and after the kiss last night she had started to entertain some serious hopes about their relationship. She had forgotten who he really was and now she remembered the man who had kidnapped the X-Men in an effort to force them to obey his ideals. who had attacked her and Scott in the city. Whose memory she had stolen for a brief period.  
  
She felt a touch on her shoulder and when she looked up Kitty had been standing there, a sympathetic look on her face. "I don't know exactly why you're crying,' the younger girl said. 'But I'm guessing it's about Erik.'  
  
Rogue was so surprised that she nodded and Kitty crouched down beside her. 'Well.' she said slowly. 'Do you like him?'  
  
Rogue nodded again.  
  
'A lot?'  
  
'Yeah,' *But he's MAGNETO! Our enemy.* Then Rogue had remembered who Kitty loved and felt a sudden rush of common feeling for her.  
  
'Then. whatever he's done, maybe you should give him a chance to explain,' Kitty suggested.  
  
'Ah. Ah'll think about it,' Rogue had said.  
  
So here she was. thinking about it. To be perfectly honest, the age gap wasn't the main thing on her mind. It was hard to see someone as decades older when they looked eighteen. What bothered Rogue most was the thought that he would leave and become an enemy again.  
  
'Rogue.'  
  
She looked up and her eyes widened to see him standing in front of her. His expression was neutral, his body language giving nothing away, but there was something in his eyes that caused her heart to do a little jump.  
  
'Yes, Er. Magneto?'  
  
'Erik is fine,' he said.  
  
'What do ya want, Erik?' she asked stiffly, getting to her feet and turning away from him. 'Ah figured you'd be running off back to one of your bases and starting to plot the X-Men's destruction or somethin'."  
  
"Actually, I have decided to stay."  
  
She whirled to look at him, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "Why?" she asked. "So you can gather data against us? Recruit the New Mutants to your cause?"  
  
A brief mental image of the New Mutants under his command flashed into Erik's head and he mentally shuddered. "No," he said. "I told Charles that I would like to stay." he cleared his throat, Rogue's scrutiny was rather unnerving. "I still don't believe that his little dream will work. that one day he will be proved wrong. but I admit that I am curious to see how far he can get and if it might aid my fellow mutants then I am always ready to try something new."  
  
"So you're only staying because you're curious?" Rogue was disbelieving. "That ain't gonna wash, Erik! Not when everyone else knows that ya have your memories back."  
  
"I was thinking of keeping that a secret for now," he said with a cough. "Besides, Rogue. this gives Charles a golden opportunity to indoctrinate me in peace and love and harmony et cetera. Not to mention the fact that, while I am _here_, I am not out _there_, and he can keep an eye on me. How could any of you X-Men truly pass that up?"  
  
"Crap," said Rogue flatly. "There has to be more than that!" she turned away from him again and started stripping leaves from a rose bush. "Ah don't believe that the great and powerful Magneto." her voice dripped with sarcasm, "Is staying just to allow his former friend to convince him about the possibilities of Mutant/Human relations."  
  
There was a long pause and then his hand came up and rested on her shoulder. "You are correct. There is more to it, but I was hoping that you would accept my explanation," he tugged her round to face him. His other hand came up and gently he ran a finger down her cheek. "Something else keeps me here. if I was wise I would resist it and leave. because I know that the ideas I am entertaining bring me perilously close to disaster."  
  
Rogue met his gaze steadily. "Ah would be upset if ya left and Ah had to fight you again," she admitted.  
  
"My age." he began.  
  
"Is rather irrelevant now," she said, grinning. "Your body is young. and Ah happen to like older men anyway."  
  
"Well that's good," Erik felt a rush of relief flood through him. How she had become so important to him over the last week he couldn't begin to understand, but he did know that he didn't want to lose the feelings she stirred up in him. "Just remember that I am not convinced that Charles' ideal is right."  
  
"Yet."  
  
His eyes crinkled at the edges with amusement. "Hmm. it will be good to argue ideology with Charles again."  
  
Rogue rolled her eyes. "Oh boy." an amusing thought struck her and she laughed. "Ya know. if you don't want the others to figure you out then ya gonna have to keep going to school!"  
  
Chagrin flickered across Erik's face. "Oh damn. and I have several Saturday detentions too!"  
  
***  
  
Nanny's remains and those of the other robots were later cleaned up by the X-Men, Professor Xavier made sure that the children who had been kidnapped all had 'other' memories of their time away. The reason why Nanny had started kidnapping people was made clear to Xavier after Erik quietly explained that she was designed to seek out people with mutant potential.  
  
"Clearly I made her a little too good," he said ruefully. "She took children whose mutant abilities were extremely latent."  
  
"There aren't any more surprises down in those sewers is there, Erik?" Xavier asked and Erik shook his head.  
  
"Not that I know of. I didn't even build that space in the first place," Erik smiled grimly. "Nanny must have done that on her own."  
  
"Ah... I see," Xavier looked sternly at his old (but now young) friend. "Please refrain from making any super-powered robots while living here, Erik."  
  
"Oh, don't worry... I'm not planning to repeat that again!"  
  
And so, peace returned to Bayville.  
  
BOOOOOOM!!!  
  
Yeah, right.  
  
"Erik! You did that on purpose!"  
  
"I have no idea what you're talking about Scott," Erik said in an ever-so- slightly amused tone of voice. "Surely you noticed that the two chemical substances had been put in the wrong containers? It's hardly my fault that you didn't see Duncan make that mistake."  
  
The now slightly singed duo of Duncan and Scott glared at him, and Erik turned back to his own experiment with a small smirk. School had never been THIS much fun when he was growing up. He leaned over to reach a test tube and squawked as his stool shifted out from underneath him, dumping him unceremoniously onto the floor. Trying to ignore the laughter from his classmates as he stood up, he shot a swift glare at Rogue, who was carefully not looking in his direction.  
  
*Serves him right,* Rogue thought, trying to hide a smile of satisfaction. *He shouldn't pick on Scott, and he shouldn't have helped me get so much better with my magnetic powers.*  
  
Next to her, Risty finished laughing at Erik and added the final chemical. "Oooooh," the two girls chorused as the mixture turned bright purple.  
  
"Pretty," Rogue murmured.  
  
"Very good Rogue and Risty," their teacher said, with some relief in his voice. "Top marks! I'm glad to see that _some_ of you young people are focused on your education." He shot a meaningful look at Erik and Rogue stuffed a hand into her mouth to stifle the giggles. Fortunately the bell rang just at that point, and in the scramble to get everything cleaned up the teacher neglected to assign homework, so it was in an excellent mood that Rogue exited class.  
  
Erik ran up beside her. "Walk you to geography?" He offered casually.  
  
"Oh, check out Casanova there," Wanda said acidly, falling into step on Rogue's other side. "Very smooth."  
  
"Yeah, but it might have been better if he'd remembered that Rogue's in _my_ geography class, not his," Risty shoved in-between Rogue and Erik and seized Rogue's arm. "Later Wanda, later Snowy!"  
  
"Snowy!" Erik spluttered as he halted in the corridor.  
  
"See you at lunch!" Rogue called back over her shoulder. "Save us a table if you get there first!"  
  
"Okay!" Wanda yelled. Then she turned and smiled evilly. "Bye Snowy."  
  
Leaving Erik turning an interesting shade of red, she spotted her brother up ahead.  
  
"Pietro!"  
  
Pietro squeaked and tried to hide in his locker. Wanda sighed and ran over to him. "Lend me your maths book," she ordered.  
  
Pietro turned it over reluctantly. "But Wanda, what am _I_ going to do without it in maths?" He whined.  
  
"Don't worry about it," Wanda said, waving a hand and sealing his locker door shut, with him inside. "Bye bye!"  
  
"It's not fair!" Pietro wailed through the slots. "Everyone blames me, Mystique is angry, and instead of him we now have Erik! I mean, what am I supposed to do now? It's not fair!"  
  
Wanda paused and grinned wickedly. "I know, and how do I deal with the whole Rogue thing?"  
  
Inside the locker, Pietro nodded also. "Yeah."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"Wait a minute, WHAT ROGUE THING???!!!!"  
  
Wanda walked off to class, laughing hysterically as Pietro continued to yell down the corridor.  
  
"WANDA WAIT! What Rogue thing? Come back! Don't leave me in here!!!"  
  
"I don't even want to know," Kurt said as he and Kitty walked past the screaming locker.  
  
Kitty giggled. "Like, should we let him out?" she asked, remembering her own fear in the same position.  
  
"Let who out?" Kurt said in a mock-bewildered tone, and then he grinned. "He's got his OWN teammates, let THEM get him out."  
  
Kitty turned to see Lance, Todd, Tabitha (recently returned to the Brotherhood gang, if not their house) and Fred walk past Pietro's locker, apparently not even noticing the noise. "Ummm..."  
  
Kurt turned to see. "Oh well. We'll let the teacher know when we get to class." He looked at Kitty piously. "After all, we're not supposed to randomly use our powers you know."  
  
Kitty laughed all the way to class.  
  
Erik shook his head irritably as he sprinted past the giggling Kitty and smirking Kurt. Goodness only knew what mischief they'd been up to, but he was sure he'd hear about it later. In the meantime, he was late for World History. Again. It was all such a damn _nuisance_.  
  
But despite all of the trouble, confusion and daily disasters, he couldn't seem to stop smiling.  
  
The End. 


End file.
